SC junks plea vs parallel bidding for PCOS, OMR

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) has junked the petition of watchdog group Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) questioning the earlier parallel biddings of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the refurbishment of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines and the lease of new optical mark reader (OMR) units.

SC spokesman Theodore Te announced in a press conference that the justices decided in session yesterday to dismiss the petition of CenPEG in July 2015 for being moot and academic.

“The biddings have been completed and the elections conducted, the issues as to parallel bidding and the conduct of the elections have been mooted and any judgment rendered by the Court on this issue would serve no practical or legal purpose,” Te explained.

In its petition filed with Alliance of Concerned Teachers, CenPEG questioned Comelec Resolution No. 15-0355 and 15-03559, which approved the conduct of parallel biddings for the refurbishment of PCOS machines and the creation of two separate Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) to supervise the process, respectively.

Petitioners alleged that parallel biddings are unconstitutional and have no legal basis under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

They argued that the assailed resolutions have no legal basis, considering that the capital outlay allotment of the Comelec for the 2016 national and local elections preparatory activities is only P11.43 billion, while procuring 93,977 new OMR units will exceed the legally authorized expenditure by over P1 billion.

The group argued that parallel bidding “is a failed experiment because it doomed the bidding for the refurbishment of the PCOS machines, and failed to protect the public interest by giving the public the best possible advantages through open competition.”