SC asked to stop Comelec from awarding lease contract

A woman casts her votes as Commission on Elections Chairman Andres “Andy” Bautista looks on during mock elections aimed at testing the Precinct Automated Tallying System (PATAS) proposed by former Commissioner Augusto Lagman and other IT experts organizations held at Bacoor National High School Annex in Poblacion, Barangay Tabing-Dagat, Bacoor, Cavite on Saturday (PNA photo by Avito C.Dalan)

MANILA — The advocates of transparent and credible elections have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from awarding the lease contract with option to purchase 23,000 Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machines to be used in the May 2016 national and local elections.

In a 52-page petition, former Comelec Commissioner Augusto “Gus” Lagman, former Philippine Computer Society president Leo Querubin and election advocate Maria Corazon Akol asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) and a writ of preliminary injunction (WPI) against the implementation of the June 29, 2015 decision of the Comelec that granted the protest and declaring that the joint venture of Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) and Jarltech International Corporation has the lowest calculated responsive bid in connection with the public bidding for the 23,000 OMR machines.

The petitioners argued that it is necessary to stop the Comelec from implementing its decision due to several violations committed by Smartmatic-TIM.

They claimed that Smartmatic-TIM “is guilty of misrepresentation for claiming that it complies with the equity requirements under Philippine law when in truth it is 100 percent foreign-owned.”

The petitioners also argued that among the laws violated by the respondents are Batas Pambansa 68 or the “Corporation Code” and Republic Act No. 9184 or the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

“They (respondents) also breached the Constitution’s equity restriction,” the petitioners said.

They added that with these, the joint venture “cannot lawfully engage in business in the Philippines and the bidding for the 23,000 new units of OMR.”

The petitioners further argued that Smartmatic-TIM’s article of incorporation stated that its commitments under the “Request for Proposal and Notice of Award” are for the automation of the 2010 national and local elections.

Last Monday, the Comelec Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC)1 issued a resolution recommending the issuance of the notice of award in favor of Smartmatic-TIM Corporation for the provision of 23,000 OMR machines.

The Smartmatic-TIM was earlier declared as having the lowest calculated responsive bid for the lease with option to purchase of the OMR machines.

The SBAC1’s recommendation was made after Smartmatic-TIM passed the post-qualification evaluation where all the documents and statements submitted were verified and validated.

The Smartmatic-TIM offered Php1.72 billion or Php780 million lower than the approved budget of Php2.5 billion for the project.

As soon as the “Notice of Award” is issued, the Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM can already proceed to the discussions of the contract details.