SC urged to declare poll automation contract unconstitutional

A group has asked the Supreme Court to grant its petition seeking to declare the Commission on Election’s awarding of the 2010 poll-automation project to a private consortium unconstitutional. In a memorandum, the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) affirmed its position that the poll body committed grave abuse of discretion for awarding the P7.2-billion automation contract to the joint venture of Smartmatic Corp. and its Filipino partner Total Information Management (TIM), Inc. The Groups lawyer Harry Roque said Article 3.3 of the contract signed on July 10, 2009 constitutes a “wholesale abdication of its (Comelec) constitutional mandate since it gave complete control of the technical aspects of the May 10, 2010 elections to a foreign entity, Smartmatic." He said that Comelec's act of giving the control on the public and private keys of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines, which would be used in the elections, to private respondents “constitutes complete surrender by public respondent of its constitutional function to enforce and administer all laws relative to the conduct of an election to a foreign entity and its local partner." Furthermore, the PCOS machines offered by respondents have not been successfully used in an election here or abroad, in violation of Republic Act 8436 (Poll Automation law), which authorizes the Comelec to use an automated election system for the process of voting and counting ballots. Petitioners further underscored the observation of Chief Justice Reynato Puno during the oral arguments last July 29 that there might have been a violation of the Constitution and the anti-dummy law when Smartmatic stated that it has control over TIM, the supposed majority stockholder of the consortium. “The joint venture agreement between respondents Smartmatic and TIM is unconstitutional for violating the 60-40-percent Filipino-foreign entity ceiling, and consequently, is illegal for violating the anti-dummy law, and Comelec’s own bidding requirements," said Roque. Earlier, the SC did not grant a temporary restraining order sought by CCM against the signing of the contract between Comelec and Smartmatic last July 10, as well as the deferment of initial payment for the project. - GMANews.TV