US Embassy scores Comelec inaction on P6.5-B VRIS

The United States Embassy in Manila is asking the Commission on Elections (Comelec) about the progress of its computerization program, particularly its refusal to implement a P6.5-billion project on voters’ registration and identification.

In a letter reportedly sent to Comelec Chairman Alfredo Benipayo, US Embassy chargé d’affaires Michael Malinowski inquired why the Voters Registration and Identification System (VRIS) has not been implemented despite the fact that a consortium involving American companies has already spent $2.4 million (roughly P120 million) for it.

The consortium Malinowski was referring to is led by local company Photokina Marketing Corp. and involves American firms IBM, Unisys, and Headstrong. It also includes the French company Sagem.

Malinowski reportedly asked why no contract has been signed yet between the Comelec and the Photokina consortium. He was apparently informed that a notice of award had been given to the group in October last year.

Malinowski made clear that the US government is not in any way trying to influence the Philippines’ electoral system. He said the embassy often gets involved when private corporations from the US invest in local companies.

Benipayo confirmed Malinowski’s letter and said the US official was asking the poll body to "shed light" on the VRIS project. However, he has not answered the letter yet.

The letter is seen to have serious implications in US-Philippine relations. The US remains the country’s biggest trading partner of the country, followed by Japan, and is its biggest market for exports.

Colin Hunt, general manager of Polaroid company, admitted calling the US labor attaché to inform it of the status of the VRIS project. He said Polaroid has already spent a lot and lost millions of dollars in potential income since it put on hold the shipment of cameras to other countries.

The cameras, Hunt said, had been reserved for the VRIS for its ID system since those in the Philippines were not enough for the project’s use.

For its part, Photokina said it has already answered all of Benipayo’s questions on the project.

Photokina spokesman George Balagtas said they have cleared with Benipayo the legal, technical and financial aspects of the project. He noted that these things had been ironed out as early as last year.

The VRIS project was shelved by the Comelec last December after Harriet Demetriou, then Comelec chairwoman, found it to be overpriced by P700 million.

Demetriou said the first phase of the project carried a price tag of P1.9 billion but the budget approved by Congress was only P1.2 billion. She explained that she had to shelve the project since no government agency is allowed to spend more than what is appropriated to it.

"I don’t want to be a signatory to a contract which I cannot defend in any forum," she said then. She was accused by at least three commissioners of deliberately stalling the computerization program.

The delay in the program’s implementation resulted in the slow counting of votes in the national and local elections last May.

Sources within the Comelec said Benipayo and Commissioner Resurreccion Borra are reportedly eyeing another project similar yet far cheaper than the VRIS. The alternative project will allegedly involve a system being used in Sweden.

The STAR tried to reach Benipayo and Borra for comment but they were not immediately available.