CA OKs P31.5-M damage suit vs Smartmatic

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has given the Malolos regional trial court (RTC) in Bulacan the green light to proceed with a P31.5-million damage suit filed against Smartmatic-Total Information Management by a mayoral candidate in the 2010 elections.

In a 17-page decision, the CA’s sixth division dismissed the petition of Smartmatic assailing the orders issued by Malolos RTC Branch 7 Judge Danilo Manalastas on June 2, 2011 and September 28, 2011.

The orders of the RTC denied the motion of Smartmatic for dismissal of the complaint filed by mayoralty candidate Angelito Sarmiento.

In his complaint, Sarmiento recounted that he went to his clustered precinct to vote on May 10, 2010 and after properly shading his choice of candidates on the ballot, he fed the ballot into the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine provided by Smartmatic for the election, but it was rejected.

The ballot was fed into the same PCOS machine three times but was similarly rejected.

Sarmiento also complained that he was not allowed to get a replacement and was advised to leave the precinct, effectively disenfranchising him and violating his constitutionally guaranteed right to suffrage. 

Sarmiento further claimed that he later discovered that there were many similar cases of unlawful disenfranchisement of voters in other precincts in San Jose del Monte characterized by machine rejection of genuine and properly shaded ballots. 

This prompted Sarmiento to file a complaint with prayer for preliminary attachment alleging that Smartmatic and its officials were guilty of willful and negligent acts contrary to law. 

He said the defendants should be held liable for not programming the PCOS machine to properly count all genuine and accomplished ballots.

He asked the RTC to award him P31.5 million in actual, moral, physical and mental sufferings inflicted on him by Smartmatic and its officials. – With Jess Diaz