Comelec welcomes reported SC vote in favor of 2010 poll automation

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday welcomed reports that the Supreme Court has rejected a petition of the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) to nullify the P7.2-billion poll automation project for the May 2010 elections. Comelec chairman Jose Melo said the SC justices voted 11-3-1 in favor of poll automation, with only Associate Justices Antonio Carpio, Conchita Carpio Morales and Arturo Brion dissenting against the majority. Associate Justice Norberto Quisumbing was out of the country, he said. Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said they got the information from “sources who had been monitoring the progress of the case." “Comelec commissioner Jose Melo said he is very happy with [Tuesday’s] decision," Jimenez told GMANews.TV over the phone. With the ruling, Melo said there is no stopping the Comelec from acquiring the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines that will be supplied by the consortium of Smartmatic Corp. and Total Information Management Corp. (TIM), which was declared the winning bidder last July 10 by the Comelec. The case against the poll automation project was filed on July 9 by the CCM through lawyer Harry Roque, who claimed the project was tainted with irregularities. Supreme Court spokesman Midas Marquez was in a meeting when GMANews.TV tried to get a confirmation of the ruling from him. Rose Natanuan of the Office of the Clerk of Court En Banc told GMANews.TV that any court decision will have to go through their office first before it is considered promulgated or released. “Baka may naglalakad na kaya may nakaalam … pero wala pa kaming natatanggap at wala kaming masasabi hangga’t wala kaming hawak na ruling," Natanauan said. (Someone must have been following up the case and learned about the outcome. But we haven’t received anything yet and we cannot say anything until we get a copy of the ruling.) Asked what adverse effects were brought by Roque’s petition, Jimenez said the poll body was forced not to make initial payments to Smartmatic-TIM. "We’ve been holding off payment in deference to the Supreme Court … The supplier has not been billing us yet," Jimenez said. Nevertheless, preparations for the automation were proceeding as scheduled. The Comelec spokesman said the 82,000 PCOS machines to be used in the upcoming polls are expected to be delivered to the country from Taiwan before the year ends. The biggest setback that the case triggered was its effect on the public’s perception of the 2010 elections. “That is why now we have to make up for lost time. Some may be worried but there are also people who are excited about the automated elections," Jimenez said. Disturbing practice Meanwhile, Roque expressed alarm that the Supreme Court's decision had apparently leaked, and said he has yet to receive a copy of the ruling. “We find this very disturbing, considering that the High Court, in recent months, has made it a point to sanction members of the bar and bench who have leaked out information on a court decision that has yet to be finalized," he said. Roque said “advanced" knowledge about decisions that had not yet been promulgated “raises many questions about the integrity of the judicial process in this case." Justice Ruben Reyes was earlier banned and fined after being found responsible for leaking a ruling on the citizenship case of Negros Oriental Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong. Despite the supposed SC ruling upholding the constitutionality of the poll automation deal, Roque said he and his group would still continue “to oppose what for all indications show is a system designed to result in a nationwide failure of elections." In an e-mailed statement, Roque said: “We believe that the struggle has now shifted to the public sphere and it is to the Filipino public that we now take this battle for openness, transparency and integrity in our national electoral system." The group of petitioners led by Roque had accused Smartmatic-TIM of violating sections of the Republic Act 8436, or the law on poll automation. They noted that Smartmatic has admitted in its Web site that it has a level of error of between two to 10 percent, which does not match Comelec’s requirement of 1.5 percent. The CCM also claimed that Comelec approved the consortium’s bid although it did not meet legal requirements, as it had not applied for incorporation before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when it participated in the bidding. The group also questioned the awarding of the bid to the consortium, saying the Comelec has not yet conducted the required pilot testing of the offered technology in at least two highly-urbanized cities first before awarding a contract. Smartmatic and its local partner won the bidding after offering the lowest bid of P7 billion, or almost P4 billion lower than the P11.3-billion budget for the automation of next year’s national elections. - GMANews.TV