Iginiit ng Commission on Elections (Comelec) na walang conflict of interest sa P535-million contract na iginawad sa F2 Logistics, ang kompanyang iniuugnay sa negosyanteng si Dennis Uy, na nag-ambag sa kampanya noon ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte.

“First of all, the question of conflict of interest was looked at, talagang chineck 'yan ng ating Bids and Awards Committee and it was found that there really was no grounds to say that there was a conflict of interest,” paliwanag ni Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez sa panayam ng ANC nitong Martes.

Sinabi rin ni Jimenez na naayon sa  procurement law ang paggawad ng kontrata sa F2 Logistics, na maghahatid at mag-iingat ng mga campaign materials at equipment sa ilang lalawigan tulad ng mga baloto at vote counting machines.

“Why it couldn’t be given to another bidder? Because our laws are very strict. You have a bidding, you have public bidding, there are rules that you abide by and if you have the lowest responsive bid, that’s who you award it to,” ayon kay Jimenez.

“And yun po ang nangyari dito. F2 Logistics did proffer the lowest responsive bid and therefore, nag-qualify siya, sa kanya mapupunta yung,” patuloy niya.

Pormal na iginawad ng Comelec ang service contract sa F2 Logistics noong nakaraang linggo.

Nagpahayag ng pangamba ang election watchdog na Kontra Daya sa pagpili ng Comelec sa F2 Logistic dahil sa "potential conflict of interest," bunga ng kaugnayan ni Uy kay Duterte.

Ayon sa convenor ng Kontra Daya na si Professor Danilo Arao, kahit may track record ang F2 Logistics sa pagdadala ng mga election equipment noong 2019 Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, magkakaroon ng usapin sa "ethics and delicadeza," ang kontrata para sa gaganaping national elections.

Sinabi naman ni Jimenez na kailangan mayroon ng sapat na dahilan para bawiin ang kontratang iginawad sa F2 logistics.

“There will have to be some sort of violation in the terms of the contract, some sort of violation by F2 or a change of circumstances, like all of a sudden ‘di na kailangan ng Comelec ang kontrata… but in terms of what's being floated now, in terms of suggestions being made, again that would not be grounds for rescission,” giit niya.

Nilinaw din ni Jimenez na bagaman kasama sa kontrata ng F2 Logistics ang paghahatid ng mga vote-counting machine, sinabi niya na dadaan pa rin sa pagsusuri ang mga makina matapos itong maihatid sa lugar na pagdadalhan.

Kabilang sa pagsusuri sa VCMs ay dapat na mag-print ang makina na “zero report” bago magsimula ang botohan para matiyak na walang “pre-loaded results” habang ibinabiyahe ito.

“The minute you find out na walang laman yan, it prints out zero report, then you know that your speculation is baseless kasi obviously walang nangyari sa makina, and then, that is the only time that the results are actually generated by the machine, habang nangyayari ang elections. Ang layo ng logistics d’yan,” paliwanag ni Jimenez.

Hindi rin daw kasama sa kontrata ng F2 Logistics ang paghahatid ng election paraphernalia na naglalaman ng resulta ng halalan.

“After the voting, when you have your printed results and then you have your transmission completed, etcetera, you take the memory cards out and you give them to the election officer. This is not going through the logistics,” ani Jimenez.

“Even at the final point, logistics will not do anything to your supplies because the most important supplies that are really necessary for the integrity of the outcomes is nasa aktwal na tao ng Comelec. At any point during this whole process, F2 does not have any means of affecting the outcome,” dagdag niya. —FRJ, GMA News