SoKor firm still sole bidder in Comelec’s 2025 automated system

One of the counting machines of Smarmatic is shown during a demo for Inquirer on April 29, 2016. (File photo from RICHARD A. REYES)

MANILA, Philippines — A South Korean consortium remains the lone bidder for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) automated election system for 2025.

It was the only company that submitted a proposal out of six that bought bidding documents.

During the bidding process headed by Comelec’s Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC), it was announced that the following six companies bought bidding documents:

Dominion Voting Systems
Indra Philippines Incorporated
AMA Group Holdings Corporation
Electiontech Consultant and Management, Incorporated
SMMT-TIM 2016, Incorporated
Miru Systems Company Limited

However, only the joint venture of Miru Systems Company Limited submitted the documents.

Miru Systems was also the lone bidder for the 2025 automated election systems held last December 2023.

However, it was declared as “ineligible” for its failure to comply with the requirements stated in the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) No. 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

The bidding was deemed ineligible since no English translations were shown in the documents handed by the consortium.

It also supposedly had an incomplete undertaking to enter into a joint venture agreement — as liability was written only as “jointly” and not “jointly and severally liability.”

Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco explained that SBAC declared a first failure of bidding, which resulted in another bidding procedure.

“Dulot ng ineligibility ng MIRU-ICS-STCC-CPSTI Joint Venture, pati na rin ang pagiging lone bidder nito, ay nagdeklara ang SBAC-AES ng unang failure ng competitive bidding para sa Lease ng FASTrAC (Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count),” Laudiangco said in a statement.

(Due to the ineligibility of the MIRU-ICS-STCC-CPSTI Joint Venture and its lone bidder, SBAC-AES declared the first failure of competitive bidding for the Lease of FASTrAC.)

However, Miru Systems can still submit a new proposal, which it did on Monday.

Comelec is looking for a new company to implement the automated system of elections after Smartmatic — whose technology has been used in Philippine polls since 2008 — was disqualified.

The new bidding follows the approved P18.8 billion budget in the 2024 General Appropriations Act.