Comelec en banc yet to vote on petition vs. Smartmatic –Garcia

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc has yet to vote on the petition seeking to ban Smartmatic in the bidding process for the 2025 automated election.

Comelec chair George Garcia, meanwhile, said that draft resolutions have already been presented to members of the en banc.

“They were given at least man lang today to study the draft resolutions so that makita namin kung ano ang magiging boto natin. Sabi nga natin, hopefully before the end of this week, ay mailabas namin ang resolution,” Garcia said in a press conference on Wednesday.

(They were given at least today to study the draft resolutions so that we can see what our vote will be. We will issue the resolution hopefully before the end of this week.) 

Garcia earlier said that the decision would be released on Wednesday, November 22. 

“We promise to you that whatever our decision is, this will always be for the good of the country, for the good of our election management, and for the purpose of upholding, affirming the integrity of each and every election that the Comelec is conducting,” said Garcia. 

The petition entitled “In the Matter of the Petition to Review the Qualifications of Smartmatic Philippines, Inc. as a Prospective Bidder in View of its Failure in the 2022 Elections to Comply with Certain Minimum System Capabilities that Resulted in Serious and Grave Irregularities in the Transmission and Receipt of Election Returns and, if warranted, to Disqualify Smartmatic from Participating in the Bidding for the 2025 Automated Election System” was filed on June 15.

It was filed by former Department of Information and Communications Technology chief Eliseo Mijares Rio Jr., Augusto Cadelina Lagman, Franklin Fayloga Ysaac, and Leonardo Olivera Odono on June 15.

Smartmatic earlier said that the allegations were "not only false but are mere baseless speculations with a singular goal of maligning our company.”

“We confidently stand by the demonstrable 100% accuracy of the results of the 2022 elections in the same way that we remain very confident in the untarnished reliability and integrity of our products and solutions,” Smartmatic said in a statement.

Smartmatic also said it was confident that the Comelec would dismiss the petition for “sheer lack of merit.”

Garcia on Wednesday also announced that the submission of the bid documents for a new automated election system in the 2025 midterm polls has been moved from November 28 to December 12.

This was decided by the Special Bids and Awards Committee to give all possible suppliers more time to prepare their documents that will be submitted to the poll body.

Last Friday, the Comelec announced that at least five companies are expected to submit their bids for the P18 billion vote counting machine contract. —VAL, GMA Integrated News