5 poll officials to resign amid ballot folder controversy

Five executives of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be resigning from the poll body’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) in light of the controversy generated by the botched multi-million ballot secrecy folder deal. In an interview with GMA News, BAC chairman Lea Alarkon said that five of them would be resigning from the committee so that there would be no doubts in future procurements that the poll body will be making for the May 10 automated elections. “Pangit naman na mapintasan ang Comelec because of this issue (It would not be good if the Comelec is criticized because of this issue)," she said in the interview that was aired over “24 Oras."

Alarkon's statement came after the poll body decided to create a three-man panel to look into the recommendation of the BAC to award the contract to OTC (One Time Carbon) Paper Supply. Worth P690 million, the contract covers supply and delivery of 1,815,000 pieces of 25-inch long ballot secrecy folders priced at P380 each. Upon a closer review, however, the poll body said the contract was "extravagant beyond the ordinary needs of the Commission." It also said that the number of folders to be purchased exceeded the total number that may actually be used during the elections. On Tuesday, Comelec chairman Jose Melo admitted that the poll body en banc and the BAC committed a "lapse" in judgment when it awarded the contract to OTC. Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal told GMA News on Thursday that the poll body en banc would still have to take up the resignation of the BAC members during their next meeting. Controversy in bidding of UV lamps too Aside from the bidding of the ballot secrecy folders, an official of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) on Thursday said that the bidding of the ultraviolet lamps (UV) that will be used to verify the ballots in May were also done in "haste." “As far as I know, the bidding was sort of in haste. Some of the (observers) were informed the day before while others were notified on the day itself," said PPCRV coordinator Dr. Arwin Serrano, who is also the poll watchdog’s designated BAC observer. He said that the bidding was not even calendared. “If you see the timeline or the calendar, it’s not there. So I was surprised that many bidders have shown interest to participate because they were able to sound it off in one or two days." He added that no representatives from other civic groups, the Office of the Ombudsman, and Commission on Audit were present during the bidding. But Alarkon said the UV lamps fall under the “emergency procurement" because the supplies are needed immediately. “Under the law, there is no need to advertise if emergency procurement. But despite of this, BAC still found it prudent to have it advertised," she said. OTC again? OTC is among the three companies that have been post qualified by the BAC for the UV lamp orders. The other bidders are Embu Integrated and Philand Industries. Alarkon said that a bidder would need to undergo eligibility, financial, and technical screening. Once they pass this, they will be up for post qualification screening. OTC passed the financial screening after it gave the lowest bid of P28 million for the deal. Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, however, said this is not an assurance that OTC would be awarded the contract. “There's nothing wrong with them participating," he said at a press briefing on Thursday. Earlier, the Comelec said that it would be using handheld UV lamps to verify the authenticity of the ballot after the high-speed printing of the ballots caused the UV marks to misalign, making it hard for the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines – the technology that will be used in the upcoming elections – to read the security feature. But political analyst Ramon Casiple, a member of the Comelec Advisory Council, disclosed that the voting machines could not read the security features because poll machine supplier Smartmatic-TIM actually failed to supply the correct ink for the UV marks. - KBK, GMANews.TV