Comelec chief’s charges denied

A member of the consortium that won the bidding for a multibillion-peso poll computerization project yesterday belied reports that it was behind moves to discredit Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Alfredo Benipayo.

Photokina Marketing Corp., in a strongly worded statement, said Benipayo’s accusations against them were "vicious and baseless."

This developed as four commissioners of the poll body once again refused to attend their twice-a-week en banc meeting allegedly due to the harsh remarks made by Benipayo about them the other day.

George Balagtas, Photokina’s senior vice president for corporate affairs, said it was unfortunate that Benipayo has chosen to involve the consortium in the recent rash of negative media articles on personal issues against him.

He added that it was even more unfortunate that Benipayo has gone on to claim that the firm and its foreign partners have spent large sums of money just to damage his chances of confirmation by the Commission on Appointments (CA).

"It is grossly inaccurate and unfair for him to claim that all his present woes have been caused by his rejection of the Voters’ Registration and Identification System (VRIS) project," Balagtas said. "Published records will readily show that the Comelec has been plagued with internal conflicts on a host of issues ever since his entry into the poll body as chairman."

Photokina heads the consortium that has been awarded the P6.5-billion VRIS project, an ambitious undertaking that seeks to computerize the Comelec’s list of voters and set up a system for voters’ identification.

Members of the consortium include Polaroid, Unisys, Headstrong, IBM and French security company Sagem.

Balagtas said the VRIS project has been unreasonably delayed by useless internal bickering within the Comelec, "much to the great disadvantage of our country and the Filipino people." Photokina has filed a petition before the Supreme Court to hasten the project.

He added that Photokina is just praying that Benipayo would stop attacking the consortium because the consortium itself is ready to oppose his CA confirmation given the opportunity.

"We are happy to meet his objections in the courts of justice and will eagerly await our turn at giving our official testimony in opposition to the confirmation of his ad interim appointment as Comelec chairman at the next CA hearing," he said.

Meanwhile, Comelec Commissioners Luzviminda Tancangco, Mehol Sadain, Ralph Lation and Rufino Javier again boycotted the poll body’s en banc meeting yesterday apparently because of the harsh words of Benipayo towards them.

However, the four commissioners did not state the said reason in their official explanation for their absence. They cited that they refused to attend the meeting because Benipayo did not include in the agenda the ground rules governing the proceedings and transaction of business in the commission, a matter the poll body had agreed to prioritize.

Benipayo accused the four commissioners the other day of trying to engage in "below-the-belt tactics" to block his confirmation. He said the four, along with the Photokina consortium, were behind a smear campaign against him.

The four vehemently denied his accusation.