By Sammy F. Martin
MANILA, August 19 (PNA) — Kabataan Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon on Wednesday appealed to House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte to support the proposed investigation on the new lease deal struck by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) with Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Corp.
Ridon filed House Resolution No. 2308 on Wednesday, calling on the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms to “conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, into the COMELEC en banc’s decision to lease 93,977 new optical mark readers (OMRs) for the 2016 national and local elections.”
Even before the formal resolution was filed, Belmonte had already nixed the proposed investigation, telling reporters that there was no need to investigate as the “integrity of the polls is not in question.”
“With all due respect to Speaker Belmonte, this representation believes that there is enough reason for Congress to push through with the investigation. The irregularities in the new lease deal struck by COMELEC with Smartmatic really warrant a full-blown inquiry,” Ridon said.
“Contrary to Speaker Belmonte’s statement that the new lease deal will not compromise the upcoming elections, we have reason to believe that massive election fraud might be committed under our noses if we don’t do anything to question the new Smartmatic contract,” the legislator added.
The poll body has earlier stated that it was originally considering three options for the conduct of the national elections next year: (1) the refurbishment option which will opt for the refurbishment and upgrading of 80,000 PCOS machines used during the 2010 and 2013 elections worth Php3.13 billion; (2) the lease option which will opt for the lease of 70,977 new OMRs at a cost of Php6.29 billion; and (3) the hybrid option or the Precinct Automatic Tallying System (PATAS) which will involve manual counting but automated canvassing of votes.
However, the COMELEC en banc recently promulgated Resolution 9980, wherein the poll body decided to lease 70,977 new OMRs for the 2016 national and local elections with Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Corp. as the contractor.
Smartmatic is set to provide a total of 93,977 new OMRs through two separate contracts worth a total of Php 8 billion.
The first contract, which was earlier awarded to Smartmatic , involves the lease of 23,000 OMRs for Php1.7 billion. The second contract, the one recently awarded by the poll body, involves the lease of 70,977 OMRs for Php6.29 billion.
In HR 2308, Ridon spelled out the irregularities and possible violation of election and audit rules committed by COMELEC in pursuing the lease deal.
The new lease deal is actually more costly despite COMELEC’s earlier pronouncement that cost is one of its main considerations. The new deal is worth Php 8 billion as opposed to the refurbishment option worth only Php3.13 billion.
The lease deal may be in violation of RA 9369, particularly Section 10, which states that “…the system procured must have demonstrated capability and been successfully used in a prior electoral exercise here or abroad.” The new OMRs that Smartmatic will supply to COMELEC are completely new and may not be compliant with the requirements of the law.
There might not be enough time to conduct an independent audit of the machines and source codes of the new machines for credibility, transparency and reliability so as to avoid issues of fraud faced in the 2010 and 2013 elections.
The lease deal may also prove to be in violation of the Government Procurement Act because there is no legal basis for conducting two parallel bidding processes (COMELEC has conducted the bidding for the refurbishment contract alongside the bidding for the lease deal). Such move has already been questioned before the Supreme Court by election watchdogs led by the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG).
Apart from these issues, Ridon also noted in HR 2308 that Smartmatic “never really proved its integrity, credibility and reliability in conducting automated elections, as evidenced by the numerous reports of failures and glitches in the 2010 and 2013 elections.”
Ridon noted that Smartmatic was even involved in election fraud cases abroad.
“The country’s future is again in the hands of Smartmatic. Not only is there bid-rigging, vote-rigging is also looming. It is alarming and frightening to imagine that a foreign power can manipulate our elections to advance their bigger, broader agenda,” Ridon said.
“Mr. Speaker, there are valid concerns arising from the new Smartmatic contract. Congress cannot simply sit back and relax while chaos inevitably ensue. Congress should lead the Filipino people in being vigilant and proactive in advancing a more credible, reliable and transparent elections. Thus we ask the House leadership to support the pending congressional probe into the new lease deal,” Ridon stressed. (PNA)