BY ASHZEL HACHERO and GERARD NAVAL
NEARLY two weeks since it was disqualified from participating in any poll-related procurement biddings, Smartmatic Philippines yesterday asked the Supreme Court (SC) to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Smartmatic’s lawyer, Christian Robert Lim, said the company is also questioning the poll body’s decision to disqualify it from all future bidding processes.
“Yes, we filed a petition with the Supreme Court. This is all we can say right now,” Lim said in a Viber message.
In a social media post, Truth and Transparency Trio (TNT Trio) member Franklin Ysaac said: “As expected, Smartmatic, through their lawyer ACCRA, filed (a petition for) temporary restraining order re disqualification order by Comelec before the SC.”
In the accompanying photo of his post, it showed that Smartmatic filed a “Petition for Certiorari with extremely urgent application for the issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order and/or Writ of Preliminary Injunction” against the Comelec decision.
A copy of Smartmatic’s petition, however, was still unavailable as of press time.
Last November 29, the Comelec en banc ruled to disallow Smartmatic from joining any public bidding projects related to the elections.
Comelec chairperson George Garcia said then that the decision was reached to “preserve the integrity of the electoral process” in the country.
While he maintained that there have been no irregularities in the conduct of elections in the country, Garcia said the poll body cannot close its eyes to current issues hounding Smartmatic.
Among others, the bribery and money laundering accusations against former Comelec chief Andres Bautista was taken into consideration by the poll body when it ruled to disqualify the election technology provider.
The Comelec decision was a result of the petition filed by TNT Trio, which also includes ex poll official Augusto Lagman, former Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) secretary Eliseo Rio, and retired Col. Leonardo Odoño, against Smartmatic.
Sought for comment, Smartmatic refused to issue one concerning “pending legal cases”.
“With due respect to the law and all parties involved, we would rather not comment yet on pending legal cases,” said Smartmatic.
Ysaac said his group is now preparing its response to the petition of Smartmatic.
“Our lawyers are now preparing (our) comment when SC orders us to respond to Smartmatic request,” said Ysaac.
Garcia said he was not surprised with the filing of the petition of Smartmatic. “This is expected. The Comelec is willing and ready to defend its position,” he said in a message to reporters. “At the end of the day, the SC has the final say on the matter,” he added.
BIDDING
Meanwhile, days before the deadline of the submission of bids for the Comelec’s Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC) project, only three companies can be considered as prospective bidders for the P18.8 billion contract.
The three firms are Miru Systems Co. Ltd., Pivot International, and Smartmatic – Total Information Management 2016 Inc.
The deadline for the submission of bids is on December 14.
Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said only those that have acquired the bidding documents for the FASTrAC project may submit their bids.
“Bidders may purchase bidding documents until the closing of the submission of bids at 9 a.m. of December 14, 2023,” said Laudiangco.
The submission of bids will be held at the SBAC Secretariat Office located at the Far East Managers and Investors Incorporated (FEMII) Building in Intramuros, Manila on or before 9 a.m.
The opening of bids will be held at the Palacio del Gobernador at 10:30 a.m.
