Comelec accepts Smartmatic’s thermal paper donation; Guanzon cries graft

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday accepted Smartmatic-TIM’s donation of thermal paper to be used in the May 9 national and local polls.

In an interview with the media, Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said the commission decided on the matter in a vote of 6-1 favoring the donation.

The donation involves 1.1 million rolls of thermal paper that will be used for the voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) in the vote-counting machines (VCMs).

Apart from thermal paper, Smartmatic is also set to donate to the Comelec two million pen markers.

Guanzon revealed that she was the lone dissenter in the decision.

On her official Twitter account, the commissioner slammed the Comelec en banc for voting to accept the donation.

She said that the act of the poll body constituted graft.

“I believe that receiving a donation from Smartmatic who is doing business with Comelec is graft,” she said.

Smartmatic earlier participated in the bidding to provide thermal paper for the VCMs but lost to Forms International Enterprises Corp., a local manufacturing company.

Quezon City-based Forms International Enterprises Corp.’s bid was P49.5 million, way below the Comelec’s P85.8-million budget for the project and lower than Smartmatic’s P83.6 million. RC