Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 27) – The Commission on Elections stood by its decision to award a multimillion-peso delivery courier services deal to F2 Logistics.
Election watchdog Kontra Daya said it is calling on the poll body to cancel its contract with F2 to transport election materials including ballots, machines, and other paraphernalia for the 2022 polls given its chairman Dennis Uy’s close ties with Malacañang.
The Davao businessman was one of President Rodrigo Duterte’s biggest campaign donors in 2016, while Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea was also one of five incorporators of F2 in 2006.
“I believe that it should be rescinded for the simple reason that it compromises the credibility of the 2022 elections,” Kontra Daya convenor Danilo Arao said in an interview.
“Technically, it may be legal as far as the Comelec is concerned, but it is patently unethical and definitely unacceptable in terms of looking at the optics behind the elections,” Arao pointed out.
There was a similar uproar on social media, with some urging the poll body to question the deal.
The cargo forwarder won against LBC Express, Airspeed International, and 2GO Express in a July bidding with the lowest offer of ₱535.99 million, against a maximum contract price of ₱1.61 billion.
It will also provide warehousing services as voting supplies are transported from the Comelec’s main office to regional hubs and to towns and cities nationwide, as it had done in the 2019 senatorial election and in the 2018 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls.
Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino said the F2 deal is legal and valid.
“Our BAC (bids and awards committee) is reviewing and following the procedures under the law, so I don’t see any problem that it shall be awarded to F2 logistics as long as we follow the law,” she told reporters at a Friday morning event.
During a hearing at the House of Representatives, Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said the issue has been “thoroughly discussed” by the Comelec en banc prior to the approval of the contract award.
“The Law Department opined there is no such violation as we go over GPPB (Government Procurement Policy Board) rules with regard to the disqualification of a prospective bidder,” said Casquejo, who heads the poll body’s steering committee for next year’s elections.
“The en banc agrees unanimously that there were no violations in the procurement process for the delivery of the AES (automated election system) components,” he added.
A former Comelec executive said the public outcry has been overblown.
“There’s nothing wrong there,” former Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal told CNN Philippines.
“It’s an award to provide logistics for Comelec for delivery of election paraphernalia,” Larrazabal explained.
“When it gets there, everything is checked naman, all those equipment are checked and rechecked by watchers of different political parties,” he added.
Larrazabal likened it to an online shopping courier, where customers can complain should the items they ordered turned out to be damaged or altered.
“From an election management point of view regarding security, I don’t see any problem there,” he also said, noting that greater focus should be given on more crucial items, such as the repair of vote counting machines, ballot printing, and the review of the source code for the automated elections.
Still, Kontra Daya insisted that giving the job to a Duterte ally is in bad taste.
“Is it just because of earning money, or is there something more to it than just simply earning money?” the group said.
CNN Philippines has reached out to F2 Logistics and the Udenna Group for comment but they have yet to respond.
READ: De Lima seeks probe into Comelec’s logistics contract for 2022 elections
