Supreme Court seeks Comelec’s reply to Smartmatic petition

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court has required the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to comment on the petition filed by Smartmatic TIM Corp. and Smartmatic Philippines Inc., which sought to stop the poll body from implementing its disqualification order.

The SC en banc also required former Information and Communications Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr., Augusto Lagman, Franklin Ysaac, and Leonardo Odoño to file within 10 days from notice their comments on the petition for certiorari (with extremely urgent application for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction) filed against them by Smartmatic.

The Smartmatic petition questioned Comelec’s Nov. 29 decision to disqualify Smartmatic from all election-related projects due to the corruption charge filed against former Comelec Chair Andres Bautista in the United States in connection with a 2016 contract awarded to the election technology company.

The Comelec earlier said that unless ordered by the high court, it would not accept Smartmatic Philippines Inc.’s bid to supply the new automated voting technology for the 2025 midterm elections.

“It is highly likely that we won’t accept their bidding documents in case they file one because our decision [to disqualify Smartmatic] is executory,” Comelec Chair George Garcia said in an earlier interview.

Comelec officials were heartened to know that the Supreme Court did not stop the implementation of the Comelec order disqualifying Smartmatic from all election projects.

Garcia said they were ready to comply with the Supreme Court’s order to respond to Smartmatic’s petition seeking to annul the disqualification order.

“Most importantly, the high court found no compelling reasons to issue an injunctive writ to stall the implementation of our questioned resolution,” Garcia told reporters on Monday.

—WITH A REPORT FROM DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN