Supreme Court Spokesperson Atty. Theodore Te (UNTV News)
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — The Supreme Court declares the contract between COMELEC and Smartmatic-TIM for the diagnostics, repair and maintenance of old PCOS machines that will be used in the 2016 elections as invalid.
Supreme Court Spokesperson Atty. Theodore Te stated, “The court voting unanimously rendered the following judgment: wherefore, the petitions are granted. Accordingly, COMELEC Resolution No. 9922 and the extended warranty contract (program 1) are declared null and void.”
This was the decision of the Supreme Court on the 268 million-peso contract between COMELEC and Smartmatic for the diagnostics and repair of old PCOS machines that will be used on the 2016 elections.
According to the Supreme Court, COMELEC’s explanation for not holding a bidding and directly entering into a contract with Smartmatic is unacceptable.
The Supreme Court also said that COMELEC’s granting of an extended warranty contract to Smartmatic was a trick against the procurement law.
The court added, it is clear that COMELEC abused its discretion when it entered the said contract so it should be cancelled.
The decision is to be implemented immediately and any amount paid to Smartmatic for the said contract is to be returned to the government.
The Supreme Court did not say if Smartmatic is disqualified should a bidding be held by COMELEC for the repair of old PCOS machines.
Former COMELEC Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. signed the contract with Smartmatic on January 30, several days before his retirement.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections will follow the decision of the Supreme Court.
Due to the ruling, the poll body can finalize the alternative step to avoid an election postponement.
Nevertheless, COMELEC will not release its final decision until it has seen the contents of the ruling.
Commission on Election Spokesperson Director James Jimenez said,
“At this point baka din kasi may laman yung desisyon na magsasabing huwag niyo nang galawin at all. Baka may mga colatilla dun na hindi natin nakikita o hindi aware of so medyo mahirap mag predict along those lines.”
(At this point the decision may include a provision discouraging any action at all. It may contain collatillas that we are not aware of. So it is difficult to predict along those lines.)
Since the SC issued a temporary restraining order on the implementation of the refurbishment contract, the poll body has been studying possible actions that can be taken if the contract is cancelled.
Among these are the bidding for the refurbishment of machines and the utilization of 23,000 new Optical Mark Reader voting machines as modified central count system.
But COMELEC admits that the possibility of a manual elections next year is getting bigger.
Dir. Jimenez added,”Kung manual din lang ang pag-uusapan,mas mainam na mag-manual tayo kaysa mag no-el.” (If we are going ‘manual’, then it would be better to do it manually than ‘no-el’ (No-Election)
COMELEC also said that they will have difficulty obtaining new technology for the 2016 elections.
(JOYCE BALANCIO / UNTV News)