Comelec hails SC ruling on flash-card bid award

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippies—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday welcomed a Supreme Court decision junking a losing bidder’s petition to stop the election body from awarding the compact flash (CF) cards contract to Smartmatic-TIM.

In an interview with reporters, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said the ruling of the tribunal should serve as a lesson to other losing bidders that they cannot make shortcuts in the process by immediately questioning and appealing their bids before the courts.

“It now clarifies the process… that you cannot just go to the courts without asking first for reconsideration from the Bids and Awards Committee and then the commission en banc for final ruling,” said Brillantes.

The Supreme Court en banc on Wednesday said it does not have any jurisdiction over the case filed by LDLA Marketing, which lost the bidding for the supply of 82,200 CF cards for the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

In a 13-page petition, LDLA Marketing urged the high court to issue a temporary restraining order on the implementation of the contract. It also asked the high court to compel the Comelec to invalidate Resolution No. 9600 and award to them the contract for the supply of CF cards instead.

It also questioned the Comelec’s decision to award the contract to Smartmatic, which supposedly submitted the highest bid price of P45.2 million (originally priced P50.9 million).