SC defers ruling on PCOS machine bidding

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) may proceed with the bidding tomorrow for the purchase of 23,000 new precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to be used in the 2016 polls.

The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday deferred ruling on the plea of lawyer Homobono Adaza seeking to temporarily stop the bidding where Smartmatic Corp. is expected to participate.

Smartmatic may join the bidding for the P2-billion contract since the SC did not act on Adaza’s petition to disqualify the company for alleged violation of election laws.

The justices of the high court opted to first seek answers from Comelec and Smartmatic before deciding on the petition for issuance of temporary restraining order (TRO).

The respondents were given 10 days from receipt of notice to submit their respective comments, according to SC spokesman Theodore Te.

The SC, however, will go on a holiday break from Dec. 15 to Jan. 9 next year. The case would be tackled when the justices resume session on Jan. 13, 2015.

In his petition, Adaza questioned the legality of the procurement of additional PCOS machines.

Without conducting an inventory as well as technical and forensic tests of the more than 80,000 PCOS machines used in the previous polls, the lawyer said acquiring new voting machines would constitute grave abuse of discretion and violate the provisions of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Smartmatic is poised to sue the poll body once it allows other providers to refurbish the more than 80,000 PCOS machines for re-use in the 2016 polls.

Cesar Flores, Smartmartic president for Asia Pacific, said they are not discounting the possibility of filing charges against the poll body if it “goes for a bid and publish confidential information about the PCOS machines.”

“There is a protection of intellectual property rights in the contract. We will sue the Comelec if it divulges proprietary information that will violate the IPR in that technology,” Flores told The STAR. – With Sheila Crisostomo