By Ferdinand G. Patinio
MANILA, April 21 (PNA) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is now working double-time in coming up with contingency measures after the Supreme Court (SC) scrapped the PhP268.8-million contract with Smartmatic–Total Information Management (TIM) Corporation for the refurbishment of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to be utilized in the May 2016 national and local polls.
Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez said the commission actually has been conducting discussions on the contingency measures since the High Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the issue.
“Nilatag na natin yung options and then pinag-usapan kung ano yung mga pwede at hindi pwedeng gawin after the TRO. So ngayon, since naglabas na ng decision yung SC, ngayon natin dedesisyunan kung ano yung option na susundin natin,” he said.
The poll body official noted that there is still enough time to look for alternative options since the elections is still more than a year away.
“We are able to adjust our timeline to take that into consideration. Sa tingin namin, we still have enough time to prepare for the elections,” Jimenez said.
He added that the commission en banc is still studying if they will file a motion for reconsideration (MR) or not.
“We have to see the decision first and if there is something there that we need to clarify, bakit tayo hindi mage-MR?” Jimenez said.
On the other hand, the Comelec official said they are ready to comply with the High Tribunal’s ruling, adding that they have prepared for whatever was the decision, whether in favor or not.
“We will comply with the decision of the SC. TRO (temporary restraining order) pa lang, inihanda na namin ang sarili namin for all possible outcomes… and this is one of the possible outcomes,” he said.
Meanwhile, an election watchdog group welcomed the decision of the SC, saying that justice has won.
“Justice won. In between the lines, the SC knew that those repairs are in reality a clever attempt to insert malicious cheating programs into the vote counting machines,” said Melchor Magdamo, co-convenor of the Citizens for Clean and Honest Elections (C3E).
With this, the group is hoping that the poll body will now conduct an honest bidding process.
“There is still plenty of time to conduct honest bidding, or better yet introduce a more transparent system. Do it correctly this time,” he added.
For his part, Nicanor Elman, C3E co-convenor, noted that the High Court’s decision supports their statement that the contract was illegal.
“This reinforces the earlier calls made by the group, together with Automated Election System (AES) Watch and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), that the negotiated deal is illegal as Smartmatic does not have proprietary rights to the PCOS machines and because it violated the procurement law,” he said.
Elman added, “C3E remains hopeful that this decision would only further strengthen its drive to have Smartmatic blacklisted from participating in any further deals with the Comelec to ensure the credibility and transparency of all future elections.”
On Tuesday, voting unanimously, the High Tribunal said the Comelec “failed to justify its resort to direct contracting with Smartmatic-TIM.”
Comelec Resolution No. 9922 approved the contract which awarded the project to Smartmatic for the diagnostics, repair and refurbishment of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to be reused in the May 2016 national and local elections.
Last March 24, the SC issued a TRO against the five-month refurbishment program of the over 80,000 PCOS units.
On the other hand, Smartmatic-TIM has yet to issue a statement on the court’s decision. (PNA)