Smartmatic ready to face critics before SC

MANILA, Philippines - Smartmatic Inc. yesterday expressed confidence there will be no legal impediment in the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to hire the technology and electronic voting firm to do diagnostic work on the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

In a statement, Smartmatic president of Asia Pacific Cesar Flores said the company’s contracts with the Comelec “have been twice upheld as legal and binding” by the Supreme Court (SC).

Flores said critics have not substantiated their accusations against Smartmatic and PCOS machines in both the 2010 and 2013 polls.

“They have tried again and again, and have failed to derail automation... Beyond their speculations, these groups have failed to prove any one of their far-fetched accusations and the fact remains that the 2010 and 2013 automated elections were transparent and accurate – feathers in the caps of both the Comelec and the Filipino nation,” Flores said.

Flores made the statement in reaction to the pronouncement of Citizens for Clean and Credible Elections (C3E) that it will file a petition before the SC to stop the Comelec from giving Smartmatic a P300-million contract to do diagnostics on the machines.

According to Flores, there have been two attempts to make the SC stop the use of Smartmatic’s PCOS machines in the 2010 and 2013 polls but the high tribunal junked both.

“While we do not begrudge anyone the right to express their opposition to the contract, we trust the courts will once again uphold the wisdom of the Comelec to award the mission-critical task of maintaining the PCOS machines to their the rightful manufacturer and the only legitimate source of original spare parts,” he said.

Earlier, Smartmatic urged the House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry into reports that Indra Sistemas, an IT provider from Spain, failed to meet the requirements to qualify to bid for the Comelec’s contract to automate the 2016 national polls.

Lawyer Ruby Yusi, representing Smartmatic, also requested Capiz Rep. Frenedil Castro, chairman of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms, to schedule an inquiry into allegations that Indra Sistemas is being investigated in Spain on various issues, including a questionable track record in its Southeast Asia operations.

Lawmakers warned of confusion and disorder if the Comelec awards its P2-billion contract to automate the 2016 presidential elections to an inexperienced information technology provider.

House deputy majority leaders George Banal of Quezon City and Sherwin Tugna of the Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption party-list said the proper awarding of the contract for the supply of additional optical mark reader (OMR) was crucial to ensuring credible elections in 2016.

“I’m confident that Comelec will not entrust the 2016 elections to a company with questionable reputation and spotty track record,” Banal said.

Tugna said the credibility of 2016 polls will be put to question if an IT provider which lacks experience in handling automation will be allowed to participate in the 2016 elections.

“The effect of an inexperienced IT provider is that the elections will not be credible. It will always and will be continuously questioned,” Tugna said.

Yusi claimed Indra was apparently misleading Comelec into believing that it has the experience running automated polls such as the one they did in Argentina.

“Evidently, the Argentina contract is a manual election and not an automated election. Hence, Indra is misleading the poll body into believing that said contract is of a similar nature to the current bid,” Yusi said.

She said Indra was involved in Argentina elections in the provision of data entry and backup scanning of telegrams sent by the Argentinian Post, in centralized locations. She said the results of these data are for the non-official quick count.

She said Indra failed to submit proof of its largest contract similar to Comelec’s OMR project.

Yusi said Indra does not have any contract for precinct-based OMR in the last 10 years, which is a requisite in the Comelec bidding. – Paolo Romero