THE Commission on Elections (Comelec), through the Office of the Solicitor General, has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to junk the petition seeking to disclose details of its P18 billion contract with automated election system provider Miru Systems Co. Ltd. for the conduct of next month’s midterm elections.
Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said the SC should dismiss the petition filed by the Right to Know, Right Now Coalition, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, the Philippine Press Institute, and academics “for being procedurally infirm and for utter lack of merit.”
The petitioners have sought the intervention of the SC on their request for information with regards the P18 billion contract in light of the withdrawal of Miru’s local partner St. Timothy Construction Corp. from the joint venture agreement and its impact on the 60 percent Filipino ownership requirement.
The petitioners specifically wants a copy of the updated joint venture agreement that includes the current composition of the Miru joint venture, the detailed allocation of its remaining partner’s financial, technical, and operational contributions or any applicable contributions of money, property, or industry, along with their monetary valuation and the resulting percentage interest of each remaining partner.
They cited their constitutional right to know information on matters of public concern in filing the mandamus petition.
Guevarra, in the 50-page comment made public by the SC late afternoon Tuesday, said there is no truth that the petitioners’ constitutional right to information have been violated by the poll body.
He said the Comelec has already allowed the petitioners access to such information, as well as the adjusted percentage of contribution and distribution, and the adjusted responsibilities of each remaining operator in the joint venture.
The petitioners have said in their petition that the information provided by the poll body was incomplete due to lack of information necessary for independent verification of legal compliance with the 60-40 ownership rule, risk assessment, status of the performance bond and other records or documents used by the Comelec as basis for its decision in awarding the multi-billion peso contract to Miru.
But Guevarra countered that the foreign equity of Miru-JV is limited to Miru’s 40 percent share in asset contributions and profit distribution.
He also said that the petitioners could access the information regarding the performance security since it is posted on the Comelec’s website.
Guevarra said the petitioners’ request for other records or documents used by Comelec as basis for its decision in awarding the contract to Miru can be done through a Freedom of Information request.
He said that under the Comelec’s FOI Manual, such request should “reasonably” describe the information being sought.
“Based on the foregoing provisions, petitioners does not have unbridled right to request for access to information without specifying which information it seeks to be furnished with, or, in this case, which official act or decision it seeks to have access to,” Guevarra said.
Last year, former Caloocan congressman Edgar “Egay” Erice asked the SC to declare as null and void the contract between the Comelec and Miru for the automation of the 2025 elections following the withdrawal of the latter’s local partner.
He said that for Comelec to further allow the contract’s implementation without Miru’s local partner is “akin to awarding and implementing a project with an entity ineligible to bid to begin with.”
“If the joint venture pushes through with its contract with the Comelec, that is not winding up. That is transacting business, hence illegal,” Erice said.
In April 2024, Erice also asked the SC, through a petition for certiorari with a prayer for a TRO, to act against the multi-billion peso contract entered into by the poll body with Miru.
The former lawmaker claimed there were irregularities in the procurement process by the Comelec for the poll automation of this year’s election.
