EDITORIAL

Supreme Court Approves 

Purchase of PCOS Machines

The Supreme Court (SC) upheld yesterday the legality of the government’s P1.8-billion purchase of precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for next year’s automated midterm elections.

Voting 11-3 in a special session, justices of the high court dismissed the consolidated petitions of various groups seeking to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from purchasing 82,000 machines used under a lease agreement in the 2010 polls from the Netherlands-based Smartmatic.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes called the ruling “a very good decision.”

The high court also lifted its April 24 temporary restraining order on the Comelec-Smartmatic deal. 

“The Comelec is now free to implement the contract for the purchase of the PCOS machines,” SC spokesman Ma. Victoria Gleoresty Guerra said at a press briefing. Guerra explained that a majority of the justices believed the deal was valid since it was forged when the earlier contract between Comelec and Smartmatic for the 2010 polls remained in effect.

“The main contract for the automated election system (AES) between Comelec and Smartmatic containing the option to purchase the PCOS machines was still existing when Smartmatic extended the period of the said option to purchase and when the poll body exercised the said option,” she said, quoting a portion of the SC ruling.

The majority of the justices are convinced the contract is still valid because the Comelec has not yet returned in full the P360-million performance security bond collected from Smartmatic.

Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta penned the ruling. The other magistrates who voted to uphold the PCOS deal are acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo, Roberto Abad, Jose Perez, Jose Mendoza, Lourdes Sereno and Bienvenido Reyes.

Justices Martin Villarama, Arturo Brion and Estela Perlas-Bernabe dissented.

The petitioners opposing the deal alleged, the new contract was not subjected to bidding as required under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act. The Comelec failed to meet the Dec. 31, 2010 deadline to exercise its option to purchase the PCOS machines. Neither the Comelec nor Smartmatic can extend the option period as doing so would violate the guidelines set by the poll body’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) and the purchase could only be considered legal if is done through public bidding.

Petitioners also argued, the Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion when it approved the contract through Resolution No. 9376 despite an advice from the Comelec Advisory Council (CAC) against exercising the option to purchase.

The CAC is the body mandated by law to recommend the appropriate and cost-effective technology for AES, issued a resolution on Feb. 8, 2012, reiterating its opposition to Comelec’s exercise of the option to purchase.

Citing “glitches, malfunctions, bugs, and defects of the Smartmatic PCOS machines and related paraphernalia” during the May 2010 elections, the CAC recommended that for the May 2013 elections, Comelec needs not use the same PCOS machines. It must look for better options for the coming polls.

The petitioners also argued that the deal  violated Section 10, Republic Act 9369 (Automated Election System law) which stipulates that for the May 10, 2010 election and succeeding electoral exercises, “the system procured must have demonstrated capability and successfully used in a prior electoral exercise here or abroad.”

In oral argument on May 8, the Comelec represented by Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza explained that the glitches found in the voting machines during the 2010 polls had already been fixed. The Comelec also argued that it had to resort to the purchase option for “practical reason,” saying its budget for the 2013 elections was only P7 billion. 

Call For Unity

Brillantes, hopes the petitioners would no longer question the ruling and instead just help the poll body ensure the success of next year’s elections.

“We are accepting the decision…a very good decision. But I think more importantly, I hope to talk and convince the petitioners not to file an appeal. Let’s unify to make the 2013 elections pleasant,” he noted.

“I think we should sit together and talk. What we need to do is help each other. If they will continue to (criticize) us, I don’t think it is right,” Brillantes added. /MP