Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) aims to resolve the disqualification petition filed against voting technology provider Smartmatic by Nov. 22, its chairman said on Friday.
“Hopefully po, ito final na, hopefully sa Wednesday madesisyunan namin ‘yan kasi gusto po namin mailabas ang desisyon bago magkaroon ng submission ng lahat ng bid documents ng lahat ng magpa-participate,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia told reporters.
[Translation: Hopefully this will be final, hopefully on Wednesday we will have a decision because we want to release the decision before we have the submission of bid documents of all those who will participate.]
Garcia said the petition is for disqualification not for blacklisting.
In June, former Information and Communications Technology Secretary Eliseo Rio, former Comelec Commissioner Augusto Lagman, Franklin Ysaac, and Leonardo Odoño filed a petition calling for a review of the qualifications of Smartmatic.
Despite the pending resolution of the disqualification petition, Smartmatic took part in the pre-bid conference for the new automated election system for the 2025 midterm elections on Monday.
The Comelec Special Bids and Awards Committee said three technology firms already purchased bidding documents for the nearly ₱18.8-billion project. They are Smartmatic Philippines – TIM Inc., Pivot International, and Miru Systems Co. Ltd.
Garcia said he hopes more than five bidders will participate to widen the playing field.
“What is important is yung substance, sa kagustuhan natin maayos na makina na gusto ng sambayanan at yung medyo mura naman dahil pondo at pera ng bayan gamit natin dito,” Garcia added.
[Translation: What is important is the substance, we want a good machine that the people will approve of and not expensive because it is the public’ s money we are using for this.]
