FRESH off winning its case in the Supreme Court (SC), international technology firm, Smartmatic International, yesterday called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to hold another public bidding for the automated election system (AES) to be used in the May 2025 national and local polls.
In a statement, Smartmatic spokesman Christian Robert Lim said it is only fair to redo the public bidding process since the SC ruled that the Comelec erred and committed grave abuse of discretion when it disqualified the firm.
“The Supreme Court’s decision acknowledged how unfair the disqualification of Smartmatic was. In the interest of ensuring electoral integrity, Comelec should redo the procurement process,” said Lim.
“The credibility of elections and the legitimacy of leaders start with a transparent bidding process,” he added.
The former poll commissioner said there is enough time for the Comelec to hold another bidding process for the 2025 AES because “we have a full year before the 2025 elections.
There is more than enough time for the Comelec to procure a system that complies with the law and its own Terms of Reference.”
In a brief statement, Comelec chairman George Garcia disagreed with Smartmatic that there is still sufficient time to redo the public bidding for the 2025 AES project.
Besides, Garcia said, the Comelec is still set appeal the SC decision.
“We have yet to recieve a copy of the SC decision. Surely, we will be filing a motion for reconsideration, which will render such decision not final and executory,” said the poll chief.
“Therefore, there may not be sufficient time anymore, contrary to their assertion,” he added.
Lim insisted the Comelec already has enough experience to make the preparations while being pressed for time.
“If Comelec was able to do it in eight months for the 2016 elections, they certainly can do it now with a good 12 months before Election Day,” said Lim citing the poll body’s experience in the May 2016 elections, when the High Tribunal nullified the Comelec’s refurbishment contract with Smartmatic, which forced the poll body to hold the bidding for new machines as late as June 2015.
“It was as late as September 2015, or just eight months before Election Day, when the contract was signed. The 2016 elections ran smoothly with the technology enabling a fair vote,” said Lim.
He also stressed how the predicament then was even complicated when the SC also ordered the Comelec to implement the voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) or the voter receipt.
“At the eleventh hour, Comelec had to reconfigure all 97,000 VCMs and subject them to another pre-election logic and accuracy test. All this massive task in just two months,” Lim recalled.
Last month, the SC ruled that the Comelec committed a grave abuse of discretion when it disqualified Smartmatic from participating in all election-related biddings of the Commission last November 2023.
The High Tribunal, however, said that the decision is not sufficient to nullify the AES contract signed between the Comelec and the joint venture led by South Korean firm, Miru Systems, for the 2025 polls.
The said ruling allowed the Comelec and Miru to proceed with the start of the manufacturing the automated counting machines (ACMs) to be used in the May 2025 elections.
HOUSE PROBE
At the House of Representatives, Rep. Rodante Marcoleta (PL, Sagip) yesterday urged the leadership to order the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms to formally begin the inquiry into the P17.9 billion automated vote-counting contract between the Comelec and Miru Systems.
Marcoleta, a lawyer, warned that Republic Act 9369, or the Automated Election Law, will be violated if the Comelec allows Miru to use what it calls its “two-systems-in-one” to collect and count votes in the 2025 midterm polls.
“The Supreme Court nullified the (Comelec) resolution because it was committed with grave abuse of discretion. Yet, the bidding was not nullified, so there’s inconsistency,” Marcoleta said.
Miru has started manufacturing the automated counting machines (ACMs) to be used in the May 2025 elections.
The suffrage panel, chaired by Mountain Province Rep. Maximo Dalog, has yet to formally begin an investigation into the AES contract although the Comelec has already answered some of its members’ concerns when it briefed the committee about its preparations for the 2025 midterm elections.
Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice earlier filed a petition urging the SC to cancel the contract and issue a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction to stop the Comelec from implementing its resolution awarding the multi-billion peso contract to Miru and its partners.
Marcoleta pointed out that Smartmatic was disqualified even before it was able to submit its bid. “Even the legal requirements were not considered. So there’s a violation on the part of the Comelec,” he said
“The Supreme Court used the doctrine of operative fact, which will only apply if there is good faith. So the Comelec should establish that there is good faith,” he also said.
Marcoleta also cited the controversies surrounding Miru and the other members of its consortium, such as the failure of automated elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iraq, and other countries where Miru had taken part.
Marcoleta expressed his concern as well regarding reports that Miru plans to use a combination of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) and Optical Mark Reader (OMR) automated counting machines, saying “this so-called two-systems-in-one that Miru wants to roll-out for the 2025 polls has never been used elsewhere in the world.”
“Under our Automated Election Law, Miru has to first prove that this hybrid system has been tested in other jurisdictions. To my recollection, reports showed that Miru had used these two systems, but separately,” he said.
“The DRE system was utilized in Congo, where 45 percent of the voting stations encountered so many problems. Meanwhile, OMR was utilized in Iraq, where 70 percent of voting stations also met certain difficulties, technical and otherwise. But the combination between the two systems has not been tried or tested anywhere, in any jurisdiction. So if we will allow Miru to apply the two systems (in-one) without showing that this has been tested anywhere, there will be a clear violation of the Automated Election Law,” Marcoleta added. — With Wendell Vigilia
