Supreme Court asked to stop Smartmatic deal

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) was asked yesterday to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from awarding a contract for the automated election system (AES) for next year’s polls to Smartmatic Corp.

Poll watchdog Citizens for Clean and Credible Elections (C3E) led other groups in seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the poll body from bidding out contracts for the 2016 polls involving Smartmatic.

The petitioners questioned last November’s Comelec decision denying their petition to blacklist the firm for at least two years for allegedly committing several “misrepresentations” and for violating its obligations under the 2010 AES contract.

They accused the Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) consortium of misrepresenting certain information in its qualification statements when it submitted the single largest contract in the name of Smartmatic International Holdings, B.V. and/or a subsidiary of the latter, Smartmatic Deployment Corp., and in claiming that Jarltech International Corp. was its subsidiary.

Petitioners said the firm violated its contract with Comelec when it failed to disclose that its supposed subsidiary, Jarltech, transferred the production of the precinct count optical (PCOS) machines from Kenmec Mechanical Engineering Co. to Quisda Corp.

“Smartmatic-TIM failed to comply with the provisions of its automation contract with Comelec when it grossly misrepresented that it can provide the Comelec with a customized system, upgrades to and replacement of systems because it was not the owner of the PCOS technology,” read the petition. “Smartmatic was a mere licensee which needed the assistance of Dominion.”

Petitioners said Smartmatic violated the 20-percent maximum allowable limit for subcontracting arrangements under Republic Act No. 9184, the Government Procurement Reform Act, and accused Comelec and its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of committing grave abuse of discretion in dismissing their petition to blacklist Smartmatic over supposed lack of legal standing of complainants.

“Petitioners have a legitimate right or interest over the propriety of the bidding of contracts by the Comelec and the performance or execution thereof,” read the petition.

“Petitioners are taxpayers, they are also voters, and members of party-list organizations and cause-oriented groups.

“Needless to stress, petitioners are stakeholders of the previous and/or upcoming elections. They have all the reasons to cry for justice, fairness and equity.”

C3E rebutted Comelec’s finding that their petition was premature.

“The complaint for blacklisting was filed in time to assail the qualifications of a potential contractor that will carry out election duties for the 2016 elections,” read the petition.

Joining C3E’s petition were National Labor Union, League of Elder and Aging Persons, Philippine Association of Free Labor Unions, Anti-Trapo Movement of the Philippines, Alliance of Government and Private Retired Employees, ACCO Homes Neighborhood Association and KAAKBAY party-list.

Named respondents were Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr., Smartmatic International Corp. and the Smartmatic-TIM consortium.

Smartmatic-TIM has asked the Comelec BAC to disqualify its rival, Indra Sistemas S.A. from the bidding for the 2016 presidential polls.

In a petition, Smartmatic questioned why Indra was declared eligible for the second stage of the public bidding although it failed in three of the 10 initial technical requirements during the end-to-end demonstration of its proposed voting system.

“The Smartmatic joint venture Tech Team recorded a total of 121 failures out of a total of 408 minimum requirements,” read the petition.

“These 121 failures represent 29.66 percent of the total requirements under the ITS.”

Smartmatic said the BAC’s technical working group (TWG) considered Indra Sistemas as eligible.

“Respondent Indra was not able to demonstrate the above specifications and yet Respondent TWG rated Respondent Indra as having passed these requirements,” read the petition.

Indra is still not eligible, although its own observation may differ from the findings of the TWG, Smartmatic said.

Smartmatic-TIM and Indra are both vying to supply optical mark reader machines to augment the old precinct count optical scan machines to be used in the 2016 elections.

On TWG’s recommendation, the BAC had unanimously declared Indra as eligible during the first stage of the bidding and Smartmatic was found qualified through 3-2 voting.

Religious watchdogs

Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan Socrates Villegas, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president, has urged Catholic lay leaders having expertise in information technology to constitute themselves as watchdogs and guardians so the system provider chosen may be able to set up a credible, efficient and effective system.

“Our Catholic universities and colleges with information technology departments should offer their services, their evaluation and put forward appropriate corrections of shortcomings,” he said.

“It is my hope that with openness on the part of Comelec and both the civic and moral sense of vigilant citizens, we may free the automated system elections from serious doubts that now plague it. We share this dream together.”

Villegas said the duty to protect the democratic system is the duty of everyone. – With Eva Visperas