Photokina mulls suit vs Comelec

A consortium of photography suppliers is poised to file a multi-billion peso lawsuit against the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for canceling their contract for the poll body’s Voter’s Registration and Identification System (VRIS).

However, Comelec Chairman Alfredo Benipayo shrugged off the threat, claiming innocence of the controversy.

George Balagtas, senior vice president of Photokina, told reporters their group will give the Comelec some more time to come out with a final decision on the VRIS.

For his part, Colin Hunt, general manager for ID systems of Polaroid Philippines, expressed reservations about suing the Comelec, saying they might not be able to do business again in the Philippines.

Balagtas said the notice of award for the VRIS project was given to the Photokina-Polaroid consortium, which also included foreign partners such as IBM and Unisys, in October last year.

The last draft contract was allegedly prepared the following month.

Balagtas insisted that the notice of award for the P1.2-billion VRIS contract was already "legally binding."

Balagtas and Hunt said they were greatly disappointed with Benipayo’s reaction to their visit yesterday at the poll body’s office in Intramuros, Manila, adding that Benipayo was apparently trying to avoid seeing them.

"I have not seen a single contract. I haven’t seen any piece of document," Benipayo said.

He admitted, however, that the decision to scrap the VRIS would have to be voted upon by the body meeeting en banc.

He added that if Photokina could produce documents to substantiate their claim, the Comelec will determine if the VRIS would have to be pursued.

Benipayo earlier trimmed down the Comelec’s proposed budget from P8.5 billion to P3.4 billion with the cancellation of the VRIS, the Accumulated Counting and Consolidation of Results System and the Precinct Mapping projects. – Sandy Araneta