Comelec bidding sa 2013 poll ballots pinaiimbestigahan

MANILA, Philippines – Hinimok ng dalawang mambabatas ang House of Representatives na imbestigahan ang umano’y iregularidad sa bidding process para sa pag-imprenta ng mga opisyal na balota para sa halalan sa Mayo.

Inihayin nina Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez at Abante Mindanao Rep. Maximo Rodriguez Jr. House Resolution 2995 na humihiling sa House of Representatives na atasan ang Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms na imbestigahan ang naturang bidding process ng Comelec.

Ayon sa kongresista ng Cagayan de Oro, inilaan ng Commission on Elections (Comelec) ang P784 milyon sa lease, installation at commissioning of printing machines, kabilang ang supply at delivery ng mga balota na may security features at iba pang kailangan sa pag-iimprenta ng mga opisyal na balota sa Mayo 13, 2013 national at local elections.

“The Comelec and National Printing Office (NPO) then entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the collaboration of the two agencies for the printing, supply and delivery of machine-readable ballots, among others,” ani Rufus.

Kabilang sa mga kinakailangan para sa MOA sa mga balota ay ang pagpasa nito sa iba’t ibang pagsusuri tulad ng paper expansion test, ang post-qualification tests at ang mismong pag-iimprenta at UV/PCOS mass testing.

“The NPO then issued an invitation to bid and its checklist for eligibility, but one of the requirements which states that the bidder must have been in existence since 2006 or earlier is allegedly an additional requirement of the NPO and is allegedly not in the MOA signed with the Comelec,” sabi ni Rodriguez.

Aniya, sa mga inaasahang sumali sa bidding – Advance Computer Forms, Inc. (Advance), Smartmatic-TIM Corporation (Smartmatic) and Holy Family-Canon (Holy Family) – tanging ang Advance at Smartmatic lamang ang pumunta sa pre-bid conference.

“After the submission of bids and during the opening of the bids, Holy Family was declared the winner despite its failure to meet some requirements for eligibility. It failed to comply with the technical requirements and allegedly failed the testing of the NPO,” sabi ni Rodriguez.

“It was determined that Advance failed on two counts while Smartmatic failed on the ground that it had not been in existence since 2006,” dagdag niya.

Sinabi pa ng kongresista na marami pang anomalya sa nangyaring bidding at masisiwalat lamang ito sa pagsasagawa ng congressional probe.