AT least 25 Roman Catholic bishops have joined calls for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to drop any deal with computer-service provider Smartmatic-Total Information Management until the latter has explained all the issues being hurled against it in connection with its compliance with election-related laws.
In a letter addressed to the Comelec, the bishops also questioned the Comelec’s issuance of Resolution 9922, which awarded Smartmatic the P300-million contract for the diagnosis and minor repair services for 80,000 Precinct Count Optical Scan (Pcos) machines to be used in 2016 elections.
“Smartmatic should first confront all the problems and issued being thrown at them. There are many problems being attributed to them but they have yet to address them. The company failed to submit all the requirements to participate in the bidding and yet it was allowed to bid,” Chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Public Affairs Commission Bishop Broderick Pabillo said.
The bishops expressed their concern with the Comelec’s “holiday rush” Resolution 9922 issued on December 23, 2014, wherein the poll body voted 5-2 to award to Smartmatic a P300-million contract for the diagnosis and minor repair services for 80,000 Pcos machines.
They insisted that haste lacks prudence and the amount is far too high just to diagnose the machines.
“We are disturbed that many contract have been awarded to the Venezuelan company, Smartmatic, since 2010 to automate Philippine national and local elections now amounting to billions of taxpayers’ money—despite undisputed findings by citizens’ election watchdogs, IT experts, and other concerned groups with regard to noncompliance by both the Comelec and Smartmatic of election and procurement laws that compromised the transparency, security, accuracy and trustworthiness of the automated election system,” the letter read.
The bishops are urging the Comelec to immediately rescind the resolution and that any decision to this effect, be deferred until after the retirement of the three outgoing officials of Comelec, led by Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. on February 2 this year and the appointment of their replacements.
They added that lack of time is not an excuse for such undue haste considering that past elections time tables were even shorter.
“We call on the Comelec to uphold the rule of law in the interest of democracy and God-given people’s sovereign rights of suffrage and good government all the safeguards as found in the automated election law should be complied with,” the bishops appealed.
Among those who signed the letter were Bishops Honesto Ongtioco of Cubao; Roberto Mallari of Nueva Ecija; Pedro Arigo of Puerto Princesa, Palawan; Camilo Gregorio of Batanes; Jose Lazo of Antique; Jose Advincula of Capiz; Leopoldo Jaucian of Bangued; Angelito Lampon of Jolo; Jose Cabantan of Malaybalay, Bukidnon; Bernardino Cortez of Infanta, Quezon; Soffonio Bancud of Cabanatuan; Emmanuel Trance of Catarman; Martin Jumoad of Basilan; Renato Mayugba of Laoag; Emmanuel Cabajar of Pagadian; Ricardo Baccay of Tuguegarao; Patricio Buzon of Kabankalan; Patrick Daniel Parcon of Talibon; Joel Baylon of Legaspi; Isabelo Abarquez of Calbayog; Crispin Varquez of Borongan; and Teodoro Bacani of Novaliches.
The letter was signed on January 21 during the CBCP Plenary Assembly at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center in Manila. Pabillo said he believes that more bishops would have been able to sign the letter had there been enough time.
‘Pabaon’
ELECTION watchdog Citizens for Clean and Credible Elections (C3E), meanwhile, demanded a thorough investigation into the reports alleging that money changed hands to ensure the award of the Pcos maintenance contract to Smartmatic.
In particular, the C3E said the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee (JCOC), which is investigating alleged Pcos anomalies and the unanswered questions on discrepancies in Pcos results, give more weight to reports that millions in bribe money went to ranking Comelec officials in exchange for the P1.2-billion contract to refurbish the Pcos machines and another contract worth P800 million to upgrade the same machines for the 2016 elections.
The C3E is protesting sweetheart deals between the Comelec and technology reseller Smartmatic.
It can be recalled that during a hearing of the JCOC on December 4, 2014, Elections Commissioner Christian Robert Lim and Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, who is JCOC co-chairman, mentioned several times the word pabaon as the hearing delved into the contracts that the Comelec, under the leadership of Brillantes who is retiring next week, are bent on awarding to Smartmatic.
Its mention several times in the hearing, C3E insisted, is reason enough to be alarmed at the barefaced attempt by some Comelec officials to reward themselves with the so-called golden parachute for their retirement.
“2016 is crucial because we elect a new President that year,” C3E co-convenor lawyer Melchor Magdamo said. “Do we entrust it to a service provider whose only qualification to conduct the elections for the Filipino people is that it bribed the Comelec?” he asked.
C3E also noted that it was also during the discussion on the pabaon that Brillantes perjured himself when he claimed that he and two other commissioners were no longer participating in the deliberations of the poll body in deciding on matters related to preparations for the elections.
Magdamo recalled Brillantes told the committee that he would no longer participate in deliberations anymore. Magdamo, also a former Comelec lawyer, said Brillantes’s claim was a “blatant lie.”
Brillantes, along with outgoing Commissioners Lucenito Tagle and Elias Yusoph, voted in favor of the negotiated contract along with Lim and Al Parreño. Commissioners Arthur Lim and Luie Tito Guia voted against the deal.
The Comelec action was widely assailed by watchdog groups, IT experts, Church and religious leaders, non government organizations, civic groups, and people’s organizations for being a suspicious “midnight deal” between the poll body and reseller Smartmatic.
“How can he say he was not participating anymore when the resolution showed he actively took part in the act of practically gifting Smartmatic with the entire P2-billion project package before Christmas?” said Magdamo.
This developed as Smartmatic urged the Comelec anew to disqualify its chief rival, Indra Sistemas S.A. ahead of the second stage of the public bidding for the Optical Mark Reader machines.
In a protest filed before the Comelec – Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), Smartmatic questioned why Indra was declared eligible to advance in the bidding process despite failing in three out of every 10 initial technical requirements of the project as shown during the end-to-end demonstration of the proposed system of the latter.
“The Smartmatic joint venture Tech Team recorded a total of 121 failures out of a total of 408 minimum requirements. These 121 failures represent 29.66 percent of the total requirements under the ITS,” it said.
“However, respondent TWG [Technical Working Group] cleared all these failures and reported the same as having been complied,” it added.
Among the observations of the Smartmatic tech team on Indra’s system include the absences of log file monitoring, backup files generation, non-display of the hash code, incapability to handle large data at similar time, absence of the required software utility, lack of the ballot definition management capability, and failure to show demonstration ballots.
“Clearly, respondent Indra could not present the required feature of the machine and was leaving it to the fertile imagination of the observers on how great its OMR machine could be,” Smartmatic said.
Earlier, the Comelec – BAC unanimously declared Indra as eligible in the First Stage of the Bidding based on its Eligibility Documents and the Initial Technical Proposals.
In contrast, Smartmatic-TIM barely qualified for the next stage after it was declared eligible via a majority vote of 3-2 from the Comelec-BAC.
Indra and Smartmatic-TIM were the only ones that are bidding for the lease of voting units to supplement the old Pcos machines to be used in the 2016 elections.