Probe on Comelec’s ‘substandard’ padlocks sought

The Commission on Elections should investigate the use of “substandard" padlocks to secure ballot boxes during the May 10 polls, a member of the election watchdog Parish Pastoral Council on Responsible Voting (PPCRV) said Saturday. Ballot boxes used during the elections were secured using padlocks of “poor quality," according to Dr. Arwin Serrano, the same whistleblower who previously exposed supposed irregularities in the purchase of ballot secrecy folders and indelible inks by the Comelec. “May isa sa mga padlocks doon na hindi talaga mabuksan ng susi niya pero kapag gagamitin mo yung susi ng ibang padlock, nabubuksan. Parang hindi maganda yung quality ng mga padlocks na nai-deliver at ginamit noong election day," he said in an interview aired over GMA Network’s “24 Oras." (One padlock cannot be opened by its key but can be opened by other keys. The padlocks used during election day were of poor quality.)

Serrano was the same person who made public the supposed irregularities in the “extravagant" purchase of ballot secrecy folders worth P690-million, which the Comelec later aborted, as well as in the bidding for the indelible ink used in the May polls. Construction supply provider Atlanta Industries, which lost the bidding for padlocks to Neutron Construction, supported Serrano’s claims and said that the locks used in the last elections were indeed “out of specifications." “Kaming mga legitimate bidders, natatalo dahil ‘yung dine-deliver nila (We, the legitimate bidders, lost in the bidding because the product of the winning bidder was) out of specifications," said lawyer Emil Baligod of Atlanta Industries. Neutron Construction, which supplied 300,000 pieces of padlocks for the price of P18 million, has not given its comment on the issue as of posting time. Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez, for his part, said the poll body would look into the matter to determine if the padlocks were indeed substandard and identify those responsible for the purchase of the supposed defective equipment. “It will be against the Comelec personnel who accepted the deficient units. Before these things are received, they have to be tested and accepted," he said in an interview. - KBK, GMANews.TV