Comelec told to answer petition on poll preparations

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday ordered the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to answer a petition of a group of concerned citizens led by former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. seeking to compel the poll body to present to the public details of its ongoing preparations for the country’s first automated elections next month.

SC spokesman Midas Marquez said the Court gave the Comelec three days to file its comment.

In a 21-page petition last week, Guingona and his group invoked their public right to information in pushing for full transparency of Comelec on the conduct of the May 10 polls.

Guingona was joined by national broadband network whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada Jr., Bishop Leo Soriano of the United Methodist Church, Dr. Quintin Doromal, writer Fe Maria Arriola and NGO leader Isagani Serrano in filing the petition.

They argued that Republic Act 6713 (Omnibus Election Code) mandates the poll body to inform the public and the electorate of its election laws, procedures, decisions and other matters relative to its duty to ensure clean, free, orderly and honest elections.

“In line with this duty, RA 6713 requires that all public documents must be made accessible to, and readily available for inspection by, the public within reasonable working hours,” petitioners stressed.

They said they sought relief from the Court following what they described as “alarming developments that indicate poor and highly questionable acts of the Comelec.”

They said that there are earlier reports involving the wrong ink used on ballots and the admission of Smartmatic-Total Information Management consortium of wrong supply of ultraviolet ink used in printing of the ballots that are unreadable by the precinct count optical scan machines.

Through lawyer Felix Carao Jr., petitioners expressed fear that such an error or technical glitch could lead to massive cheating and even worse, failure of election.