Supreme Court apologizes to Photokina

The Supreme Court’s public information office admitted yesterday it misled the public by releasing a news bulletin that mistakenly claimed that Photokina Marketing Corp. could no longer participate in the government’s Voter Registration and Identification System (VRIS) project.

"I agree that (the news bulletin’s) contextual background could have been more accurately and better understood by the public if our writer had instead quoted verbatim from the decision itself," SC-PIO chief Ismael Khan Jr. said in a letter to Photokina’s lawyers.

"We regret any misunderstanding that the PIO’s news bulletin may have caused," Khan wrote.

Khan’s letter was in reply to the lawyers’ Sept. 26 query which called the attention of the SC-PIO on its mistaken notion that the SC’s ruling canceled the entire VRIS project from the bidding process through the formal award granted to Photokina.

But Photokina vice president for corporate affairs George Balagtas said the SC ruling never mentioned the cancellation of the entire project and Photokina, which won the bidding, may still deal with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on the P6.5 billion VRIS project.

But although Khan regretted causing confusion by the news bulletin emanating from his office, Photokina lawyer Ramon Esguerra noted that the SC-PIO chief continued to quote the SC’s opinions on related issues which had nothing to do with the ruling itself.

"The decision is limited to the setting aside of the preliminary mandatory injunction and preliminary prohibitory injunction granted by the Quezon City regional trial court to Photokina against the Comelec last Dec. 19, 2001 and Feb. 7, 2002," Esguerra said.

"It also dismissed the special civil action filed by Photokina against the Comelec with the lower court late last year," he added.

Balagtas quoted the SC’s Sept. 18 ruling, written by Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, that conceded Photokina was indeed the winning bidder but it cannot compel the Comelec to formalize a contract.

"We rule that Photokina, though the winning bidder, cannot compel the Comelec to formalize the contract. Since Photokina’s bid is beyond the amount appropriated by Congress, the proposed contract is not binding upon the Comelec and is considered void," the ruling read.

"It is unfortunate, however, that the Public Information Office of the Supreme Court has muddled the decision by its careless and apparently malicious news bulletin which has caused Photokina and its foreign consortium partners considerable damage," said Photokina vice president for special projects Eric Noora.

"We firmly believe that the VRIS award, which Photokina won in an open and fair bid by submitting the highest technical score and lowest bid price among three final bidders, remains valid and in force," Noora added.

Balagtas said Photokina was "deeply disturbed" by the news bulletin, entitled "SC rules Photokina contract null and void," which appeared to create a different impression from the official decision of the high court.

"We believe this to be a patent error and a malicious effort to distort the true decision of the Supreme Court and thereby place Photokina and its foreign partners in the VRIS consortium in a bad light," Photokina said in a statement.

"We are puzzled as to how and why such a glaring disparity happened," Balagtas said, noting that the release of the bulletin "caused several media and civic personalities to make unfair and disparaging statements against" Photokina and caused "serious damage" to Photokina’s name and corporate reputation.