THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said it is set to include documents and information regarding the money-laundering charges in the United States (US) against its former head, Andres Bautista, when it appeals the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) reversing its disqualification of Smartmatic International from election biddings.
Speaking at a media forum in Manila, Comelec chairman George Garcia said they have decided to include in their Motion for Reconsideration (MR) the data that they have secured with the help of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the US Department of Homeland Security.
“We want to prove that when we issued the disqualification of the company, it is not baseless. We have a basis. This is our basis,” said Garcia.
The documents are no longer confidential, he said as he pointed out that these are “now public and officially admitted in court.”
The poll chief said they have long wanted to include the information but were prevented from doing so out of respect to the US authorities.
“That was our basis (in disqualifying Smartmatic). We cannot reveal the information in our answer, at that time, because of the Mutual Legal Defense Treaty, and we don’t want to compromise the investigation of the US authorities,” he said.
He said they virtually got the green light to discuss the US case more extensively after meeting with US representatives about three weeks ago.
“Based on our communication with the US authorities, we have confirmed that the case is officially filed in a district court in the US,” said Garcia.
In late last year, reports came out that Bautista, who was the Comelec chairman during the 2016 national and local polls, is facing an investigation for money-laundering in the United States in relation to the alleged money laundering activities involving executives from Smartmatic, which bagged the poll automation project in 2016.
The same issue snowballed to what eventually led to the disqualification of Smartmatic International by the Comelec en banc from participating in all election-related procurement projects.
Smartmatic brought the case to the SC, which said that the Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion when it disqualified the technology firm from bidding for the 2025 automated election system.
Asked if a warrant of arrest has already been issued against Bautista, Garcia hinted that he is already in the hands of US authorities.
“You don’t need an arrest warrant if the person is already in custody,” he said.
Sought for clarification, the poll chief neither confirmed nor denied Bautista’s whereabouts.
“All I said is you don’t need a warrant if a person is in custody. We will have to ask this information to US authorities,” said Garcia.
Garcia said they are also looking at possible charges against Smartmatic in relation to the controversial awarding of the 2016 poll automation contract.
He said this is the purpose of the special investigating panel they created last year to review the procurement proceedings in 2016.
“We want to know who are the others involved if indeed the 2016 bidding was rigged. It cannot be just one person. But the US case only has jurisdiction against one person, not the others involved,” he said.
“Who are the conspirators? This is why we created this panel. And the US DOJ provided us with some documents that are now being reviewed by our panel,” added Garcia.
