Comelec names winning bidder for P95-million paper contract for barangay, SK polls

MANILA, Philippines - The bids and awards committee (BAC) of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) concluded its bidding for the contract to supply the paper to be used for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections on Oct. 25.

BAC chairman Ferdinand Rafanan announced that Noah Paper Mills won the bid to supply the paper needed for the Oct. 25 elections after it successfully met all the technical, eligibility and financial requirements for the P95-million contract.

 Noah Paper Mills will supply the paper to be used by the National Printing Office to print the official ballots, election returns and canvass forms needed for the village polls.

Rafanan said Noah bested two other firms in the bidding.

Rafanan said the BAC had already recommended to the Comelec to formally award the contract to Noah.

“After the notice of award has been issued, Noah will have three days to deliver the paper...(and) we still have time (to prepare for the elections),” he added.

Rafanan said the Comelec had already approved the BAC’s proposal not to use the Comelec logo on the “non-accountable forms” like ballpens, ballot secrecy folders and continuing forms where the list of the voters will be printed, to save time and money.

The Comelec, however, could no longer purchase the supplies from the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) as earlier planned.

“Before, the DBM said the supplies were available. But now, according to them, they could no longer provide us with what we need so we’re going to call a bidding for that,” Rafanan said.

Rafanan added the BAC would start bidding out the contract for the indelible ink tomorrow.

At the same time, Comelec announced that all incumbent barangay officials are not considered resigned if they are seeking any elective post in the Oct. 25 election.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said incumbent officials “outside the barangay system,” or those occupying local and national elective posts, are “deemed resigned” once they file their certificates of candidacy (COCs).    

“For example, a municipal councilor is running for barangay chairman, he is deemed resigned as councilor,” Jimenez explained.

But when an incumbent barangay chairman or an incumbent councilman files a COC for any barangay position, he is not deemed resigned from his current position.

Such policy is intended to level the playing field among candidates, according to Jimenez.

For the coming elections, some 42,000 seats for barangay chairman and around 294,000 posts for councilmen are up for grabs.

On Oct. 25, the Comelec is also holding the election for the SK. There are some 52.5 million voters for the synchronized polls.

Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said, however, that such policy taken from paragraph 2, Section 4 of Comelec Resolution No. 9029 is “illegal or contrary to the provisions of Republic Act 9006 which repealed Sec. 67 of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC) and Sec. 11 of Republic Act 8436 where the Comelec based its aforesaid resolution.”

“In other words, the provisions of Sec. 67 of the OEC and Sec. 11 of RA 8436 providing for the ‘deemed resigned’ rule had already been repealed by RA 9006,” Macalintal said in a letter to Comelec Chairman Jose Melo.

Macalintal added this “has been the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of Quinto vs Comelec (February 2010) where it ruled that the ‘deemed resigned’ rule applies only to appointive and not to elective officials.”

“To avoid such an unnecessarily embarrassing and frustrating situation, it is recommended that the Commission immediately amend Comelec Resolution No. 9029 by deleting the second paragraph of Section 4 thereof to make the implementing rules conform with the law,” Macalintal suggested.

In a related development, the Philippine National Police (PNP) announced that it had arrested 146 people for violating the total gun ban during the election period leading up to the Oct. 25 polls.

PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz said 131 civilians have been arrested, as well as four police officers, two soldiers and nine government officials.

Cruz also said that the 10,676 police checkpoints set up nationwide to enforce the total gun ban have also confiscated 37 high-caliber and 90 low-caliber guns.

He said the checkpoints were able to seize two air guns, 28 bladed weapons and a grenade.

The PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines had earlier inked an agreement that defined their roles during the 45-day election period that will end on Nov. 10.

During the election period, guns are only permitted to be carried by law enforcement agents in the performance of official duties and while in complete uniform and with proper identification.

PNP chief Director General Raul Bacalzo said the peace and order situation leading up to the village elections had been good.

“This time as we look ahead to another electoral exercise, we are mobilizing again the combined might of the PNP and AFP to safeguard this electoral process and uphold the will of the sovereign electorate in the forthcoming synchronized barangay and SK polls on Oct. 25,” he said. – With Mike Frialde