Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) – A group of Filipino migrant workers asked the Supreme Court (SC) to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from leasing new vote counting machines from Smartmatic.
The group’s lawyer, Manuelito Luna, filed the “Petition for Prohibition with Temporary Restraining Order” at the high court on Monday morning (September 14).
Luna is also connected with the groups Automated Election System Watch (AES Watch) and Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG).
He said there is a supposed “mafia” within Comelec that rigs biddings to favor Smartmatic.
Why lease?
The petitioners said the poll body violated auditing laws by procuring new machines – when there are existing ones available.
Comelec is leasing close to 94,000 new machines from Smartmatic for roughly P8 billion.
Meanwhile, the almost 82,000 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines used in the 2010 and 2013 national polls are kept in a warehouse in Laguna.
Comelec initially planned to refurbish the old machines but it was delayed several times.
The commission eventually decided it was too late to refurbish the machines and new ones would have to be acquired.
The poll body would only have spent around 2-billion pesos for the refurbishment of the old vote-counting machines.
Monopolizing elections
The petitioners pointed out that the Comelec is allowing Smartmatic to monopolize the elections.
“Since 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and now 2015 for 2016, sa tatlong pagkakataon, isang supplier lang or vendor and palaging nananalo sa procurement. Especially when it comes to electronic or computer equipment to be used in elections,” Luna said in an interview.
Luna said it is wrong that a foreign company keeps landing supply deals for poll technology.
“So ito po ay isang ebidensya ng monpoliya,” said Luna.
Comelec denied favoring Smartmatic.
Comelec officials insisted, the biddings for the supply deals were carried out fairly and competitively.
The petition is the sixth case against Comelec and Smartmatic filed before the high court.
