Stop purchase of PCOS machines, SC urged

Members of an election watchdog have reiterated their appeal to the Supreme Court to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from buying Smartmatic Corp.’s precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for next year’s midterm polls.

In a 46-page memorandum submitted to the high court, Automated Elections System (AES) Watch, led by former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr., said the Comelec acted with grave abuse of discretion when it decided to buy the machines for P1.8 billion without a public bidding and despite the alleged poor performance of the machines in the 2010 polls.

AES Watch said the Comelec’s option to purchase the machines under its old contract with Smartmatic had expired in April 2011 so the deed of sale executed in March this year constituted an “entirely new and negotiated contract” made without a public bidding.

The group also scored the Comelec for ignoring its advisory council which had disapproved the further use of the PCOS machines due to glitches and the deactivation of its security features. The majority of the Comelec commissioners, AES Watch said, did not even bother to explain how they arrived at the decision not to use the PCOS machines in next year’s polls.

“Comelec chose to cast a blind eye on, and a deaf ear to, these officially and publicly confirmed vulnerabilities, defects and inadequacies of Smartmatic’s PCOS machines and related equipment,” AES Watch said.

AES Watch said a new bidding should be held because the PCOS machines failed to comply with the “minimum system capabilities” set by Republic Act No. 9369 or the Amended AES Act of 2007.