WATCH: Voter’s receipt 101
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Six of the seven members of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) voted to accept more than one million rolls of thermal paper and two million marking pens for free.
The thermal paper will be used to print voter receipts, while the additional pens will allow more voters to fill out ballots at the same time.
Smartmatic said the pens were part of their spare inventory from the 2010 elections.
With this, the Comelec is calling off the bidding for thermal paper.
Smartmatic lost the bidding to the Quezon City-based company Forms International Enterprises, which placed an offer of P49.5 million. Smartmatic’s offer was P83.5 million.
“Kung magpapabidding pa tayo, matatapos ito mga April 20 eh. So meron pang mga delivery issues. Eh ito, nandyan na, binibigay na lang sa atin, binibigay naman ng libre. Alam pa natin na yung thermal paper na binibigay ng Smartmatic ay tumutugma dun sa makina kasi sila ang nagsu-supply noon. So sa aming palagay, talagang advantageous ang pagtanggap ng donasyon na ito,” said Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista.
[Translation: If we bid this out, we will finish on April 20. There are also delivery issues. The material to be given by Smartmatic are already on hand and given for free. We also know that the thermal paper to be given by Smartmatic will be compatible with the vote-counting machines because they were the ones who previously supplied it. In our opinion, it is advantageous to receive Smartmatic’s donations.]
Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, however, disagreed with the decision.
She said on Thursday (April 14) the Comelec receiving a donation from a paid contractor may be seen as a form of graft.
“The en banc already approved it with my lone dissenting vote. Because in my opinion, it might violate the anti-graft and corrupt practices act. But you know, all the commissioners and the chair are lawyers. They have their own interpretation,” said Guanzon.
The Comelec accepted bids for the thermal paper supply contract on April 5 — an additional step to their preparations for the may nine polls.
Last month, the Supreme Court ordered the Comelec to print voter receipts, which the Comelec at the time was not ready to do.
