Court allows Comelec to take over Laguna warehouse

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) was allowed by the Biñan, Laguna regional trial court (RTC) to take over a warehouse in the province where some 80,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines are being kept.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said they were able to secure a “writ of possession” from Judge Teodoro Solis of Biñan RTC Branch 25, banning the warehouse owner, Power Serve Inc. (PSI), from the facility in Cabuyao town.

“We filed for a writ of possession so that we can take over the warehouse. We deposited some P44.8 million to cover seven months (of rentals). This started on Dec. 1,” he said.

The PSI warehouse was rented by Smartmatic International Inc. to house the PCOS machines used in the 2010 polls. The contract, however, ended last Aug. 30.

When the Comelec bought the machines from Smartmatic, it tried to find a new warehouse but no bidders qualified. This prompted the poll body to negotiate with PSI to continue renting the warehouse.

The negotiations, however, bogged down, as the PSI wanted a three-year lease contract while the Comelec wanted to rent the facility until June 2013 only.

Brillantes said they could not keep PSI people from the warehouse so they brought 45 policemen to the facility last Thursday to secure “our machines, our configuration assembly and other equipment” because PSI personnel were still going there.

He said the writ of possession gave the Comelec total control of the warehouse.