BY ASHZEL HACHERO and GERARD NAVAL
THE Supreme Court (SC) has not issued a restraining order against the P17.9 billion poll automation agreement between the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Miru Systems joint venture.
The SC Public Information Office said the magistrates instead gave the respondents 10 days to submit their comment on the petition filed by former Rep. Edgar Erice seeking to annual the contract between the Comelec and Miru joint venture.
Erice had likewise asked the High Court to issue a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction against the implementation of the contract.
“They were given 10 days from their receipt of the SC resolution directing them to comment,” SC spokesperson Camille Ting said, referring to the May 21 order of the justices.
In the absence of a TRO from the High Court, Comelec chairman George Garcia said the poll body will continue its preparations for the May 2025 national and local polls.
In a brief statement, Garcia said the Comelec welcomes the SC decision not to stop the poll preparations.
“We are so elated that the High Court did not issue any injunctive writ,” said Garcia, adding: “Thus, our preparations for the automated 2025 national and local elections will proceed as scheduled in view of a very tight timeline that we have.”
Garcia said they will comply with the SC order.
In a related development, Garcia said a Motion for Reconsideration (MR) filed by one of the eligible bidders for the Online Voting and Counting System (OVCS) is causing delays in the conclusion of the public bidding for the P465.8 million project.
Garcia said the Joint Venture of Voatz Inc.-ePLDT Inc.-and EBizolution, Inc. filed an MR before the Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) last week.
To recall, the SBAC declared the Joint Venture of SMS Global Technologies, Inc. and Sequent Tech Inc. as having the lowest calculated bid (LCB) with a bid offer of P112,000,000.
The Voatz JV was declared as having the second LCB after submitting a bid of P435,528,888,00.
According to Garcia, the MR “will slightly push back our preparations since the customization will require a synced OVCS, Full Automation System with Transparency Audit and Count (FASTrAC), and Secure Electronic Transmission Services (SETS).” “We thought we would complete all the awarding before the end of May,” added Garcia
The Miru JV has been awarded the FASTrAC project last March, while the JV IOne Resources Inc. and Ardent Networks Inc. won the SETS project back in April.
In its 11-page MR, the Voatz JV asked the SBAC to disqualify the SMS-Sequent JV from the OVCS project.
“The above-mentioned circumstances establish a clear showing that SMS Global Technologies Inc. & Sequent Tech Inc., failed to show its capability and quality of service to the procuring entity, and as such, the said bidder should be disqualified,” said the Voatz JV.
“Consequently, the Procurement of Online Voting and Counting System for the 2025 National and Local Elections-2nd Bidding should not be awarded to SMS Global Technologies Inc. & Sequent Tech Inc.,” it also said.
Voatz claimed that one of the members of the SMS-Sequent JV has a “deliquent” status with the State of Delaware.
“Clearly, inability to comply to tax regulations of one of the corporations in a joint venture would be tantamount to the inability of the joint venture to comply with the requirement for post-qualification,” it said.
It also pointed at several observations made during the post-qualification demonstration of the SMS-Sequent JV.
These include the submitted pre-election data file from Comelec was not used during the end-to-end demonstration; did not use the required laptop computer during the public demonstration; and the absence of the requirement of documentary evidence/s that the bidder is ISO certified.
Lastly, it questioned why the SMS-Sequent JV was allowed to make modifications and/or improvements during the conduct of the post-qualification demonstration to conform with the requirements.
“It would be contrary to the provisions of the law and the IRR if SMS-Sequent Joint Venture is allowed to modify their submission and/or demonstration to comply with said requirements during the conduct of the post-qualification,” said Voatz JV.
Other bidders for the OVCS project but were declared ineligible or disqualified were Indra Soluciones Technologias de la Infomation, and the Joint Venture of AMA Group Holdings Corporation, Dasan Network Solutions, Inc, and Kevoting Inc.
