COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes said on Wednesday that the poll body has spent P20 million to prepare for the supposed to be automated elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on August 8.
Brillantes said the poll body spent P20 million for the certification of the source code that was supposed to be used in the automated ARMM elections.
He said that despite the proposal to synchronize the ARMM election to the 2013 midterm polls, the Comelec still pushed through with what the law has mandated—to automate the electoral exercise.
“The only thing that we have to prepare for an automated system is to get a certification from Denver [Colorado] of the source code that we were supposed to use for the ARMM elections,” Brillantes said.
“We have to do this because there is a lead time to complete this all,” he added, saying that aside from the P20 million, there were also some minor expenses that they have incurred.
In early April the Comelec signed a contract with Denver-based SysTest Lab Inc. (SLI), a software- testing company that certified the source code that was used during the May 10, 2010 national elections.
The certification of source code will take months and the automation preparation can be completed in four to six months.
Despite the impending passage of bills providing for the postponement of the ARMM elections, the Comelec pursued its preparation for automated regional elections on the thought that the lawmakers would decide the issue quickly.
However, it took Congress almost four months to pass the bills.
Brillantes said Comelec has to pay the amount because it cannot renege on the contract with SLI that was signed and sealed as early as April.
Mindanaonons outraged by ARMM poll-postponement bill’s passage—Pimentel
FORMER Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. on Wednesday said he does not want to think that pork barrel pressure was behind the passage of a bill canceling this year’s elections in the ARMM, but that this is exactly the prevailing sentiment in ARMM and the rest of Mindanao.
“That’s far from my mind, but I cannot say the same for the many Mindanaonons who have expressed to me their outrage, contempt and disappointment over Senate Bill (SB) 2756, which is a violation of both the Constitution and the human rights of the people of ARMM,” said Pimentel.
Sens. Juan Miguel Zubiri and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos had earlier warned against the dangling of the so-called pork barrel, the millions of pesos of funds allocated to lawmakers each year, to rally support for the ARMM election-postponement bills.
Pimentel said “it’s not over until it’s over as far as the fight” against SB 2756 is concerned, adding that he expects more complaints to be lodged before the Supreme Court against the bill.
He lamented that the bill contravenes Article 21 of the International Declaration of Human Rights, which states that the will of the people as expressed in genuine elections shall be the basis of the authority of government.
“And this will, according to the declaration which the Philippines signed after the United Nations adopted it in 1948, must not be trampled upon, thereby recognizing the right to vote as a basic human right.”
“While the Philippines prides itself as a democratic country, we now have a government that in one fell swoop disfranchised the entire ARMM voting population,” he added.
“This Congress has forever been tarred for a monstrosity of a bill that also imposes on the people of ARMM officers in charge to be appointed by Malacañang as their leaders until 2013,” said Pimentel.
“Our democracy is under assault and those whom the people expected to champion their right to vote have let them down. The Senate, in particular, even dealt the people of ARMM a double black-eye when it stripped from SB 2756 a provision banning the OICs from running in ARMM in 2013.”
SB 2756 resets and synchronizes the August 8, 2011 ARMM elections with the 2013 national and local elections. The Senate passed SB 2756 on third and final reading last Monday while the House adopted it in its entirety the following day.
The President only needs to sign SB 2756 to complete its passage into law.
Pimentel said that while SB 2756’s signing by President Aquino is a certainty as it is a bill certified urgent by Malacañang, the petitions against it before the SC should prod the Commission on Election to continue preparing for the ARMM elections as scheduled on August 8 this year.
“In the event that the SC finds the measure unconstitutional, the Comelec must not have any excuses not to hold the ARMM election as scheduled. In such a case, the Comelec will be derelict in fulfilling its duties,” he said.
Pimentel said that he was specifically disappointed with two senators who had expressed strong opposition to postponing the elections in ARMM, but who either made a complete about-face or who was conveniently absent during the vote on SB 2756.
“Our Muslim brothers and sisters have adopted as their own this lawmaker who, nonetheless, prioritized a trip outside the country over a golden opportunity to champion the cause of Mindanaonons,” he said.
