Comelec awards contract for supply of indelible ink

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has finally awarded the contract for the supply of indelible ink, National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) chairman Jose Concepcion said yesterday.

The winning bidder, Texas Resources Corp., promised to deliver the anti-fraud markers one week before the May 10 elections, he said.

Efforts to reach Comelec officials to confirm the deal proved futile as they were unavailable for comment.

Concepcion earlier criticized the Comelec for its failure to award the contract on time. Under the original schedule, the indelible ink should have been completely delivered to the Comelec by April 15.

Concepcion said that Texas Resources, headed by a certain Tony Yap, promised to deliver 70 percent of the ink by April 24 and the rest by the end of the month.

Concepcion added that under the contract, the company will supply the Comelec with 500,000 bottles of indelible ink at P27 per 15-ml bottle. The total purchase price is P13.5 million.

"They actually bidded for P37 per bottle but I asked them to put the price down for the sake of the country," said Concepcion. "It was also agreed that other companies would help and they would allow the use of their facilities to hasten production."

The Namfrel head revealed the deal was finalized after two other bidders withdrew.

The indelible ink is placed on the index finger of voters to enable election officers to determine who had already voted, thus preventing people from voting more than once.

Concepcion earlier expressed alarm over the Comelec’s delay in awarding the contract for the supply of indelible ink. He said that it would take at least a month to import silver nitrate, an important ingredient in the manufacture of indelible ink.

However, he said this is not going to be a problem for Texas Resources as the company has sufficient stocks of silver nitrate.

Texas Resources, he said, is a relatively known company mainly engaged in paint manufacturing.

Namfrel is expected to make an ocular inspection of the company’s premises on Pioneer street in Pasig City this morning.

"Mr. Yap agreed with the inspection. I told him that for the sake of transparency, he should agree to the inspection," said Concepcion.

Meanwhile, the Comelec has announced that the Computerized Voter’s List (CVL), which should have been released last February, is now also available to the public.

It can, however, be obtained only at the Comelec head office in Manila at P5 per page. The list is also available on compact disc at P15 per precinct.

Earlier, reelectionist Sen. Aquilino Pimentel complained that political parties do not have enough time to inspect the CVL due to the Comelec’s delay in releasing the list.

He said it is through the CVL that they would be able to determine if the voters’ list is padded.