Plan to purchase PCOS machines ‘illegal, risky’

MANILA, Philippines—A poll watchdog said the Commission on Election’s (Comelec) plan to buy Smartmatic Corp.’s used Precinct Council Optical Scan (PCOS) machines was “illegal” and “risky.”

“It will leave one foreign company, Smartmatic, monopolizing the technology system in all elections and even running the whole political exercise forever,” the Quezon City-based Automated Election Systems (AES) Watch said in a statement.

Ally

The group found an ally in Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, who asked the Comelec to stop any payment to Smartmatic, blaming the company’s PCOS machines for glitches in the May 2010 elections.

Sought for his reaction, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. urged the watchdog group to hurry up and file their complaint in court so the issue could be settled.

“We actually want them to file cases as soon as possible so that if the court will say that we cannot go with Smartmatic, then we will have time and we won’t be hardpressed [to conduct a new bidding for a new automation contract],” Brillantes told reporters over the phone.

Last Thursday, the Commission en banc voting 5-2, decided to avail of its “option to purchase” about 8,000 PCOS machines, including the software and a new consolidation and canvassing system for about P1.9 billion.

Legal obstacle

“We have already decided. So those who say they will file a case should do so and we will know [if there is a legal obstacle or not].”

Pimentel had urged the Comelec to hold any compensation due  Smartmatic for the use of the PCOS machines because of the “glitches that attended the 2010 elections.” These defects need to be corrected, the senator added.

Brillantes maintained that most of the glitches and errors on the PCOS machines that cropped up in the 2010 general elections had been addressed by Smartmatic. Among these were the lack of ultraviolet mark sensors and digital signatures, and problems with the compact flash cards, which contained stored voting data and other instructions on how to operate the machines.

AES Watch, through coconvenor Nelson Celis, also brought up questionable contract procedures  in this deal. Celis said Comelec’s “option to purchase” as provided for in the June 2009 contract with Smartmatic expired in December 2010. Under questionable circumstances, the option was extended to March and then December 2011 this time with a 20 percent increase in the original price.

Disqualification

In a separate statement, Dr. Pablo Manalastas, information technology consultant of the Center for People Empowerment in Governance, said Smartmatic’s alleged failure to comply with major provisions of Republic Act 9369, particularly the minimum system capabilities for the system used in 2010, should disqualify the company from doing further business with the Comelec.

“Instead of making Smartmatic liable for noncompliance with the election law and for the deficiencies of its system,  he Comelec, under Chairman Brillantes, chose to thank and then award the foreign company with yet another questionable contract,” Manalastas said.