Festering

FIRST PERSON

- ALEX MAGNO

Does the Supreme Court still matter? The Court recently affirmed with finality its decision to overturn the Comelec's arbitrary disqualification of Smartmatic. The poll body's motion for reconsideration was rejected. But that does not, however, mean that the humongous P18-billion contract awarded will be rebid. Because the Comelec overstepped its bounds and disqualified a potential bidder without proper process, the way was cleared for a bidding process with only one bidder participating. That is almost a mockery of our procurement laws.

That single bidder, the consortium led by South Korean firm Miru, was awarded the contract despite the legal requirement for procured election technology to have a clear record of performance in a previous election. Miru submitted, and the Comelec approved, untried and untested technology that the supplier itself described as a "prototype."

The Supreme Court's ruling in Smartmatic vs. Comelec found that the poll body ignored due process by summarily disqualifying a long-time supplier of our counting machines. In fact, the machines supplied by Smartmatic are all operational and covered by warranty. We could have saved P18 billion in taxpayer money if these machines, already owned by the Comelec, were reused and the procurement for new machines delayed until the next elections cycle. But the poll body chose to decommission the machines.

But the Comelec, it seems, is in such a hurry to spend the money on new machines - even if the new machines are untested. The commissioners were itching to shop.