A MEMBER of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms yesterday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to consider reusing the 97,000 vote-counting machines (VCMs) in next year’s midterm polls to save close to P18 billion.
“The VCMs had been verified to be in working condition, as after retrieval, each VCM was inspected individually and restored to perfect condition, as validated by the Comelec itself,” said Rizal Rep. Emigdio Tanjuatco III, adding that it is practical and wise for the Comelec to just reuse the VCMs that were bought from Smarmatic.
The lawmaker said the billions of pesos in savings “can bridge the budgetary gaps in essential services that the government is mandated to provide.”
Tanjuatco said he joined the call of his colleagues in light of the lingering concerns on the “unreliability” of the new hybrid voting and counting system contracted by the Comelec which, he said, “casts a shadow on the less-than-a-year of preparations for the national and local elections in May 2025.”
He was referring to the P17.9 billion automated vote-counting contract between the Comelec and controversial South Korean firm Miru Systems Co. Ltd.
“First and foremost, the P18 billion contract between the Comelec and Miru Systems Co. Ltd. does not comply with the terms of reference (TOR) of the automated election system (AES). I was present during the first demo of Miru’s machines in the Comelec, where I witnessed the deficiencies first hand,” he said.
Tanjuatco particularly questioned the integrity of vote-counting as he personally saw that Miru’s prototype machine read crumpled, marked and torn sample ballots during the demo in February.
He also opposed the “railroading of the contract signing despite mounting calls for the Comelec to first look into the controversies surrounding Miru’s bid, especially the South Korean firm’s submission of an unused prototype, a practice disallowed by the law.”
The Supreme Court earlier ruled that the poll body committed grave abuse of discretion when it disqualified Smartmatic-TIM from participating in the bidding for the 2025 Automated Election System (AES) contract.
However, the SC did not nullify the multi-billion contract that the Comelec inked last month with Miru, which was awarded the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit and Count (FASTrAC) project.
“Instead of spending so much money on an untested AES, which greatly risks failing the Filipino electorate, why not reuse the VCMs in the Comelec’s possession? These machines are still covered by warranty until next year,” Tanjuatco pointed out. “Reusing these VCMs is a very viable option given the government’s present challenges in providing critical funds to support social amelioration, food security and universal health care.”
Tanjuatco said the Comelec’s VCMs inventory “complies with 95 percent of the requirements for the optical scanner functionality, as specified in the AES’ TOR.”
“The machines have been tested and they perform well. Only 1.8 percent of these VCMs experienced issues in the past elections, which is better than expected. For comparison, deploying 100,000 MacBooks can result in up to 10% experiencing issues; for laptops with Microsoft software, it can be even higher, up to 20 percent,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Comelec yesterday reminded former congressman Edgar Erice of facing possible indirect contempt charges from the Supreme Court (SC) if he continues to speak publicly regarding the legality of the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC) contract.
In a letter addressed to Erice, Comelec chairman George Garcia said they won’t engage in any public forum with Erice when it comes to discussing merits of the case involving the contract of the poll body with the Joint Venture of Miru Systems Co Ltd, Integrated Computer Systems, St. Timothy Construction Corporation, and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies, Inc.
“The Comelec is equally mindful of its duty to abide by the sub judice rule, lest it commits acts that may constitute indirect contempt,” said Garcia.
“We stand firm in our position that any further discussion about the legality or illegality of the contract between Comelec and Joint Venture of Miru Systems should be presented before the courts,” he added.
The poll chief issued the reminder after declining the invitation for the Comelec to join Erice in a scheduled media conference.
“Since a Petition is pending before the Supreme Court, the subject of which falls squarely within the topics to be discussed in your media briefing, it behooves the Commission to regretfully decline your invitation,” said Garcia.
Last April, Erice filed a Petition against the P17.9 billion Comelec – Miru contract on the 2025 poll automation project before the High Tribunal.
In late May, the SC required Comelec and Miru to submit their Comments on the petition of Erice.
In a related development, the Comelec is set to sign today the contract for the Online Voting and Counting System (OVCS) project.
In an advisory, the Comelec bared that the contract signing between the Commission and the Joint Venture (JV) of SMS Global Technologies, Inc. & Sequent Tech Inc. has been set on Tuesday morning. It will be held at the Comelec Main Office in Intramuros, Manila.
The contract signing will be followed by a demonstration of the JV’s internet voting system.
Last month, the Comelec en banc awarded the OVCS project to the JV of SMS and Sequent.
This after SMS-Sequent JV submitted a bid proposal of P112,000,000.00 for the OVCS project, which has an approved budget of P465,810,926,57.
The OVCS is set to be used for the 2025 overseas voting. – With Gerard Naval
