Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 10) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) aims to open in February the public bidding for the transmission system for the 2025 midterm elections.
“Mga second week hanggang third week ng February pasisimulan na po natin ang sa transmission,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia told reporters on Wednesday.
[Translation: We will start the public bidding process for the transmission system at around second to third week of February.]
The poll chief explained that the en banc decided to \”unbundle\” or separate the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC) project from the transmission system for the 2025 polls.
The FASTrAC project refers to the machines to be used for the upcoming elections.
\”Ang Comelec ang kausap ng mga telcos para madali po yung monitoring yung paghingi ng mga dokumento at meron full control po ang Comelec,” said Garcia.
[Translation: The Comelec is the one talking to telcos so we can easily monitor the request for documents and we can also have full control.]
Garcia earlier said they may remove the single transparency server used in previous elections.
Instead, they propose a system which can transmit to all end-users, such as political parties, citizens’ arms, and media.
He said they are also looking at the simultaneous procurement of the program that will be used for internet voting of overseas Filipino voters.
The Comelec will implement online voting for the 2025 midterm elections.
The poll chief noted that the last week of March will be a critical period in their preparations for the electoral exercise.
“Dapat po makapag-award ang Comelec sa lahat ng pangangailangan niya lalo na po sa automated elections system before the end of March at all cost po yan,\” Garcia said. \”Sapagkat kung lampas po niyan hindi na po kakayanin ng Comelec.\”
[Translation: The Comelec must be able to award the winning bidders, especially for the automated elections system, before the end of March. Because if we do that past March, the Comelec will have a hard time.]
He said the winning bidder for the machines, transmission system and internet voting program need time for procurement, production, testing, certification, and source code review, among other things.
Garcia vowed to maintain transparency in all bidding processes.
