Lone bidder ‘ineligible’ for poll automation project

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has declared the lone bidder for the multibillion-peso Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC) project “ineligible” and will conduct another round of bidding.

“Lone bidder Miru Systems Inc. has been declared as ineligible for failure to comply fully with the legal requirements for eligibility, thereby resulting to a failure of bidding,” Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said.

Due to the failure of bidding, Laudiangco said the Comelec will have to conduct another round of bidding, probably by the first week of January.

After preliminary examination of the bid proposal, the Comelec Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) found that Miru Systems Inc. failed to put English translation of supporting documents as required.

SBAC further noted that the undertaking to enter into a joint venture of Miru System was also incomplete.

It then declared a failure of competitive bidding for the mentioned project and ordered a mandatory review of FASTrAC.

Korean firm Miru Systems Co. Ltd. was the sole company able to submit on time the requirements during the pre-bid conference yesterday.

Meanwhile, technology provider Smartmatic attempted to submit bidding documents but the SBAC refused to accept them because of the decision of the Comelec en banc to disqualify the company due to grave irregularities during the 2022 elections.

Until the closing of the pre-bid conference, SBAC had not received any restraining order from the Supreme Court, Laudiangco said.

But if the High Court issues an order based on the appeal filed by Smartmatic, Laudiangco said the SBAC will comply.

Aside from Smartmatic and Miru, another technology firm, Pivot International, also purchased bidding documents. It was, however, unable to submit bid documents.

According to Laudiangco, the P18.827-billion contract includes the vote-counting machines, ballots and other paraphernalia needed for the voting and canvassing of votes in the 2025 national and local elections.