Rep Rodriguez backs Smartmatic’s advice on reuse of VCMs for 2025 polls

FILE PHOTO: Commission on Elections (Comelec) personnel run a final test before sealing the vote-counting machines to be used for the 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in Pasong Tamo Elementary School in Quezon City. INQUIRER / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to consider Smartmatic Philippines’s advice on reusing vote counting machines (VCMs) for the 2025 polls.

Rodriguez said he wrote Comelec on May 13, persuading the poll body to recognize the suggestion of Smartmatic, which used to provide the equipment for automated elections in the country, to save billions in costs as preparations for the 2025 midterm elections are underway.

Rodriguez pointed out that Comelec “should act prudently and be practical in its approach” because its contract with South Korean firm Miru Systems Co. Ltd. (Miru Systems) and its consortium amounts to P17.99 billion, despite concerns about its ability to deliver glitch-free elections.

“Unfortunately, the only alternative it presented is its contract with Miru, which will cost the government P17 billion, notwithstanding the company’s checkered record based on recent elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Iraq,” the congressman said in a statement Wednesday.

READ: Comelec: 180,000 old poll machines up for grabs

According to Rodriguez, Smartmatic already assured stakeholders that it will honor its 2015 contract with Comelec on the leasing of 93,977 VCMs, noting that the Optical Mark Readers (OMR) and the Election Management System (EMS) are still covered by the warranty that was extended to three subsequent local and national elections after 2016.

Rodriguez likewise said Comelec still owns the Automated Election System (AES) software for the EMS, vote counting system, and consolidated canvassing system (CCS) — or basically, the overall system to be used in the 2025 elections, which cost P402.73 million in 2021.

“Hence, there is no compelling need to purchase new machines for the 2025 elections,” he stressed.

On March 11, Comelec awarded the contract for the AES for the 2025 midterm polls to Miru, the sole bidder for the poll body’s Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (Fastrac).

This includes supplying 110,000 automated counting machines, election management systems, consolidation and canvassing systems, ballot printing, ballot boxes, and other peripherals.

READ: Comelec, Miru ink P17.99 B pact for automated 2025 polls

However, questions were raised about the bidding and Miru’s reputation overseas.  Last April 18, Aksyon Demokratiko member and former Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice asked the Supreme Court (SC) to stop Comelec from implementing its P17.99 billion contract with Miru.

Erice said the contract violates Republic Act No. 9369, or the Automated Election Law, because Miru will try a hybrid system that was supposedly never done in another country.

During the House of Representatives committee hearing on suffrage and electoral reforms on March 12, Rodriguez also criticized Comelec for failing to get the side of Miru’s critics and only relying on certifications that the company is qualified to provide the automation system for the 2025 polls.

Rodriguez asked Comelec for copies of certifications obtained from the poll commission of the Congo and the United Nations for Iraq, as there were reported errors when Miru implemented its automated election systems.

After the Comelec gave the House panel copies of the certifications, Rodriguez asked if the poll body obtained the side of poll watchdogs in Congo and Iraq who criticized Miru Systems, to which Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said their Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) did not ask for the side of Miru System’s critics.

According to Rodriguez, the country should not take a financial risk by merely scrapping the existing VCMs, which have been helpful.

“Why should we place our election integrity at risk and the country at a financial disadvantage when tried and tested VCMs are already in the Comelec’s custody?” Rodriguez asked.

The Comelec has decided not to reuse Smartmatic’s VCMs, noting several glitches encountered in past elections, including the 2,000 VCMs bogged down during the 2022 presidential poll.