Chiz, Jinggoy seek to prevent Smartmatic execs from leaving RP

Officials of Smartmatic — the supplier of automated election machines that incurred glitches after being tested early this week — should be prevented from leaving the country to hold them accountable for possible automation troubles. This was the announcement made by Sen. Francisco Escudero, who said he would request Commission on Elections chair Jose Melo and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile to move for the issuance of a hold-departure order against Smartmatic executives. The move is to ensure “that they can make good on their pledge to implement a nationwide automation of next Monday’s polls," Escudero said in a statement. The senator co-chairs the Congress’ joint oversight committee on poll automation. The Justice Department issues hold departure orders, while the Bureau of Immigration implements them. Also on Wednesday, Senate Pro-Tempore leader Jose “Jinggoy" Estrada called on the bureau to place Smartmatic officials on its watchlist, which would put them under close scrutiny in anticipation of untoward incidents on May 10. “Estrada said the government should include all foreign officials of Smartmatic under close watch of the immigration bureau," said a statement from the office of Estrada, a senatorial candidate running under the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino banner. Smartmatic is the foreign partner of Filipino company Total Information Management Corporation (TIM). The consortium bagged the Comelec contract to automate the May 10 elections. Smartmatic spokesperson Gene Gregorio, for his part, laughed off Escudero’s proposal for the issuance of a hold-departure order. “I wonder if the good senator knows his law. There can be no hold order unless there is a case, and there can be no case because there is no crime," he said in a text message to GMANews.TV. “The Venezuelans [Smartmatic officials] are not escaping because they are busy making the project succeed. That is Smartmatic’s commission to the nation. At this point, let us stop all blaming and accusations," Gregorio added. In the meantime, a Malacañang official said that the proposal to issue a hold departure order against Smartmatic executives is illogical, since "they have not yet committed any crime." However, Presidential adviser on political affairs Prospero Pichay stressed that the Commission on Elections should "run after" the company for any problems that may be encountered on May 10. "There is no logic they have not yet committed any crime," Pichay said in a press briefing on the same day. “If there is indeed a big problem on election day, we should run after Smartmatic…let's give [Smartmatic] the benefit of the doubt [but] Comelec should run after Smartmatic this is their responsibility," Pichay was prompted to make this statement after Escudero made his announcement. Last Monday, numerous glitches marred the testing of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, prompting the lawyer of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to ask the Comelec to postpone elections for two more weeks to avert the possibility of election failure. Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar continued to support the Comelec and said it's "very rare" to have systems that are "error-free." He also appealed to voters not to get carried away by "political noise," which he said are being used by various groups to advance their interests. "It’s not yet finished. Let’s see what happens on Monday. For the nth time, [we] remind people we are currently automating and [political noise] complicates things. Please, give [Comelec] utmost support," Olivar said. Polls to push through Escudero and Estrada’s moves came in the wake of reports of defective Precinct Count Optical Scanners (PCOS) machines. Some units counted votes for local candidates who were not even marked on the ballot. The Comelec also recalled thousands of the compact flash cards used to store data inside the PCOS machines. The cards were said to have been the cause of the defects. On Wednesday, the Comelec assured that the first nationwide automated polls would push through on May 10. - with Aie B. See, RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV