Smartmatic exec gets dressing down from Comelec’s Guanzon

SCREENGRAB FROM ROWENA GUANZON’S TWITTER ACCOUNT

Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Rowena Guanzon gave a stern reprimand to Smartmatic technical support team leader Marlon Garcia when they had an encounter in the commissioners’ dining room on Tuesday.

Garcia supposedly entered the commissioners’ dining room to get a glass of water when he was told by the feisty commissioner to get out of the room.

Guanzon told Garcia that he should not be inside an off-limits area as he is under investigation for effecting the “cosmetic” change in the transparency server script.

“Alam mo, I’m surprised na gumagala-gala pa ‘yan sa commissioners’ hallway at dining room. Kasi akala ko sinabi ko na, on the day na nag-order kami ng investigation, na I already told somebody to tell Smartmatic people to please huwag silang pumunta sa hallway ng mga commissioners at hindi naman po sila invited sa dining room na ‘yun. Kasi we talk about things there that we don’t want other people to know. Kaya ‘yung room na ‘yun ay isa talagang executive dining room, di ba?”

(You know, I’m surprised that he  still roams around the commissioners’ hallway and dining room. On the day we ordered an investigation, I already told somebody to tell the Smartmatic people not to go to the commissioners’ hallway because they are not invited in that area. We talk about things there that we don’t want other people to know. That is an executive dining room.)

READ: Comelec says script tweak was minor, did not affect results

“So nagulat lang ako kanina, may mga kausap akong abogado ko biglang pumasok si Marlon Garcia. Sabi ko sa kanya, ‘What are you doing here? You stay away from here. You are under investigation.’ Baka na-shock lang din siya kasi kumuha lang siya ng baso. He meant to say na kukuha lang siya ng tubig,” Guanzon said.

(So I was surprised when Marlon Garcia entered the room while I was talking to my lawyers. I asked him, “What are you doing here? Stay away from here. You are under investigation.” He was probably shocked too because he was just getting a glass. He probably meant to say that he was just going to get water.)

She said that Garcia and other Smartmatic officials should observe a “no contact rule” with Comelec commissioners pending the investigation of the transparency server script tweak.

The lone female commissioner said that she was not joking around with Garcia.

“Seryoso(ako). Of course, sabi ko, ‘Why are you here? You should not be here. You are under investigation.’ You should have a non-contact rule with commissioners because we are going to decide their fate. Kami ang huhusga sa kanila (We will be the ones to judge them),” she said.

READ: Guanzon to Smartmatic: Don’t leave pending script tweak probe

Guanzon has openly criticized Smartmatic’s “breach of protocol” of changing the script to correct the ‘?’ in the names of some candidates with ‘ñ’ without asking for the authorization first from the en banc.

Through a memorandum issued on Monday, she urged the en banc to direct Smartmatic to bar any of its team members from leaving the country pending the investigation.

On its part, Smartmatic said that it is willing to face any probe regarding the script tweak. IDL/rga