Comelec bid winner seeks government assistance

Foreign partners of the consortium that won the Commission on Elections (Comelec) bidding for the P1.2-billion Voter’s Registration and Identification System (VRIS) have asked their respective governments’ support in "setting the record straight."

Karl MacLean, technology consultant of the Photokina consortium, said the US and French embassies are now monitoring the Philippine government action on the canceled project.

"American and French trade commissioners are currently meeting in the embassies here," MacLean said. "They are talking to a number of people in government."

The VRIS Project Team is made up of Photokina Marketing Corp., Polaroid, Unisys, Headstrong, US-based IBM and French security company Sagem.

Colin Hunt, Polaroid general manager for ID systems, said foreign companies are asking the Comelec to explain why the VRIS bidding was declared anomalous.

"There were around 20 takers, and the group went through the process and won fair and square," Hunt said.

Diplomatic action is expected to be taken by the concerned foreign governments.

"I wish we could say what our governments told us. But what I know is that they are very concerned with how the Comelec is handling the VRIS issue," Hunt said.

Hunt said the international business community may entertain second thoughts on doing business with the Philippine government "if the Comelec continues to disregard a bid that went through a very legal process."

Essentially, VRIS provides a comprehensive and integrated solution for voter registration, including the development and maintenance of a secure electoral database that would serve as the foundation for clean and honest elections.

Inherent in the approach to voter database cleansing is the use of a sophisticated Automated Fingerprint Identification System technology that ensures the uniqueness of each voter’s record.

A secure, tamper-proof voter ID card that will serve as tangible proof of the clean voters’ list shall be issued only to duly validated registered voters.

The Photokina consortium was awarded the project last year following one of the most exhaustive and highly technical bidding procedures ever conducted by the Comelec. It bested the field by garnering the highest technical score and submitting the lowest price, outbidding its closest rival by more than P500 million.

However, former Comelec chairwoman Harriet Demetriou, prior to the end of her term in January, cancelled the project, claiming anomaly in the bidding process.

Demetriou’s successor, Chairman Alfredo Benipayo, has announced he would be taking over the modernization committee from its chairwoman, Commissioner Luzviminda Tancangco.

Benipayo said all components of the poll body’s modernization program would be submitted for review.

The Photokina consortium has requested a meeting with Benipayo once the Comelec chief returns from an electoral management conference in Stockholm, Sweden on July 3.

Tancangco said the poll body may be liable if it fails to implement the project, saying a notice of award had already been passed by the Comelec en banc during Demetriou’s term. – Pia Lee-Brago