Comelec eyes penalties vs suppliers of faulty VCMs, SD cards, pens

MANILA, Philippines – Suppliers of faulty election materials used last Monday will be penalized if found guilty of violating terms of their contracts with the government, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sheriff Abas said on Tuesday.

“Definitely, pina-pareview ko na sa law department yung penalty just in case may violation of contract,” Abas said when asked if the poll body would hold liable the suppliers of VCMs, SD cards and ballot marking pens.

“But as mentioned, kailangan rin nating marinig yung side nila (We have to hear their side),” he added.

Abas said that 961 vote counting machines (VCMs) and 1,253 SD cards encountered problems last Monday.

During the overseas absentee voting process, the poll body also received reports of malfunctioning marking pens.

Abas revealed that the SD cards were supplied by a sister company of Silicon Valley, while the marking pens were provided by the Triplex Corporation.

Abas pointed out that out of the 1,665 defective SD cards, 1,253 have already been replaced.

The Comelec is set to investigate what caused the glitches on the SD cards.

“We are going to investigate after this elections kung ano ba talaga ang naging cause ng defective SD cards and then papanagutin natin kung sino ang may cause talaga,” Abas said.

READ: 961 VCMs, 1,665 SD cards suffer glitches in 2019 polls — Comelec