Smartmatic: some sectors 'salivating' to punish us

Smartmatic, the supplier of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to be used in the 2010 elections, said on Wednesday that some sectors were "salivating" to penalize it over the reported delay in the delivery of the equipment. "A lot of people are salivating over the fact that Smartmatic should be punished," said Cesar Flores, president of Smartmatic-Asia, during the hearing of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Automated Election System at the Senate. "Let me explain that for a delay to be, there has to be someone expecting something and someone not delivering on time. However, the milestones were clearly adjusted," he added. He said the firm did all it could to meet the deadline. "We looked for a bigger place, we hired more people, we have more production line and at the end we're going to deliver by the end of the deadline," Flores said. He blamed the delay on the cases filed against them before the Supreme Court. "There were many delays because of the SC case which many proponents are sitting right here within us. They are to blame for many of the delays, they are also salivating on seeing us here. this delayed many many things," he said. Flores' use of saliva imagery was questioned by Rep. Edsel Lagman. "May we know whether salivating is a lingo consistent with automation or is it a vulgar language which should not be said in this forum," the lawmaker said in an obviously sarcastic tone. The Smartmatic-Asia president said he was not addressing Lagman but other parties, to which the lawmaker replied that whoever he was referring to, the languange he used should not be spoken in the forum. "I agree that you should temper your language although I do agree that they were salivating because they wanted the contract for themselves. I know these characters, they were the worst characters we can think of," said Rep Teddy Boy Locsin. Lawmakers and several groups have scored Smartmatic and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the reported delay in the delivery of the machines. In the original schedule submitted by the Comelec to the Congress, the machines should have been delivered by November last year. Smartmatic-TIM had then promised to initially deliver 42,200 or the 82,200 PCOS units by the end of November, but the scheduled delivery was moved to December. By the end of last year, only 7,200 units were delivered, supposedly due to costly shipping and traffic problems during the holiday season. During the hearing, Comelec chairman Jose Armando Melo said there are now 28,000 machines in their warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna while 12,000 more are awaiting release from the Bureau of Customs, 8,000 are still in transit and 7,100 are awaiting shipment in Shanghai, China. Melo added that the remaining machines will be ready for shipment on or before February 14 and will be in the country by February 21, which is seven days ahead of the February 28 deadline. With this, the Comelec insisted that the delivery of the machines is on schedule. "There may be delays (in the installment delivery of machines) but in the legal sense there is no delay," Melo said. Senator Francis Escudero questioned this, however, saying that there appears to be no delay simply because the Comelec keeps on changing the schedule. Under the contract, Smartmatic will be fined P7.1 million for each day of delay. Lawyer Jose Tolentino, Comelec executive director, said they need to adjust the schedule because of the problems they encountered even before the contract was signed. Escudero pointed out a stipulation in the contract, which said that the deadline cannot be moved beyond 30 days from what was originally stated. "But some of the adjustments made exceed 30 days," said the senator. He said the lawyers of the oversight committee are now checking the dates of the original schedule against the amended schedule. "The oversight committee will point it out to Comelec, and Comelec should take the necessary action, either by approaching the party concerned, in this case Smartmatic, or filing the necessary action in court should they refuse," Escudero said. - Amita O. Legaspi/JV, GMANews.TV