We had no choice, says polls chief of decision

Commission on Elections Chair Andres Bautista on Saturday defended the poll agency’s decision to lease all new voting machines from Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Corp., even as he admitted that they were indeed compelled to make such a move.

“We came into an imperfect situation. Basically, the choice was also imperfect but we had to make the best choice given the circumstance,” Bautista told the Inquirer in a phone interview.

Bautista said the commission en banc, through Comelec Resolution No. 9980 promulgated last Thursday, unanimously voted to award the lease contract for the 70,977 Optical Mark Reader (OMRs) machines to Smartmatic-TIM.

Smartmatic earlier bagged the lease contract for a first order of 23,000 OMRs.

Some commissioners, however, issued separate concurring opinions in the latest lease contract, saying that they voted “with a heavy heart” and “with great sadness.”

Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said Smartmatic “pushed the commission to the edge,” forcing the Comelec to make such a decision.

Until Thursday, the Comelec was considering two options: reusing the refurbished 81,896 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines used in previous elections to be supplemented by 23,000 new OMR machines, or using all-new 23,000 OMR units and another batch of 70,977 OMRs.

The first option was abandoned after the bidding for the refurbishment of the old PCOS units failed.

Bautista told the Inquirer he shared the sentiments of the commissioners.

“Hindi lang sila [ang napilitan], pati ako rin (Not only they were forced, I was, too),” he said as he cited several factors—time constraint and failure of biddings—as to why they decided to enter into the lease contract.

“The May 2016 election is not a moving target. We have to make a quick decision. We have to make the best decision we could make given the circumstances. We have to move forward,” Bautista said.

“This has not been an easy decision… It is the people turning out for next year’s election that will determine the merits of our decision today and our succeeding efforts in the following days,” he said in his concurring opinion in the Comelec resolution.

Bautista said they expected several legal challenges against the lease contract.