PALPAK SA IBANG BANSA, GAGAMITIN SA PILIPINAS

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Thank you for watching!

Thank you for watching!

I rise to bring to your attention a disturbing contractual award entered into for the 2025 National and Local Elections.

Last February 22, 2024, the Comelec announced that it awarded the contract for the lease, not the purchase, but the lease of the automatic voting systems for the 2025 National and Local Elections.

With an 18.8272.

billion peso approved budget for contract, ang kontratang ito ang pinakamalaki sa kasaysayan ng mga halalan sa Pilipinas.

It dwarfs the aggregate total of 25 billion pesos spent for poll automation from 2010 to 2022.

Ang nakapagtataka, Mr. President, dear colleagues, the bidding for the richest single contract in Philippine

election history was able to attract only a single bidder, a joint venture composed of South Korea's Miru Systems Company Limited

and Philippine companies Integrated Computer Systems, St. Timothy Construction Corporation, and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies.

This company, Miru, is no stranger to controversy.

Miru was previously involved in supplying automated election systems.

For, aside from its home country, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of Iraq.

In Congo, researchers reportedly found that the machines Miru tried to sell there were repackaged equipment,

originally intended for Argentina, where similar machines faced pushback.

Ang tawag nga sa Congo na mga election machines doon ay,

cheating machines.

In Iraq, a 2018 Reuters report found that Miru's machines were, quote,

at the heart of fraud allegations that led to a manual recount in some areas after the May 12 election, close quote.

Ayon sa mga mananaliksik, 30% and 75% of the voting machines supplied by Miru, respectively,

were affected by election day glitches and malfunctions, which led to failure of elections in those countries.

And while these doubts linger in our minds, doubts caused by electoral troubles in fragile states like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq,

it seems that there is also a clear violation of law.

Question, prototype nga ba ang automated counter machines?

During post-qualification, the phase of the competitive bidding process in which the winning bid is validated to ensure that it meets the requirements in the bid documents,

Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo admitted that the ACM being presented was a prototype.

He said, quote,

This machine is ours. It really belongs to the Comelec. We made our wish list. Miru just followed.

So, if you noticed, this is a customized machine which has not yet been produced, close quote.

So, I just apologize.

Mr. President, dear colleagues, na nawala yung audio, pero yan po ay audio clip ng interview sa On the Line ng One News kay Atty. Rex Laudianco.

But, Section 12 of Republic Act No. 8436, the Automated Election Law, as amended, requires that the system produced

that the system procured must have been successfully used in a prior electoral exercise here or abroad.

Kaya ang dami ang nagtatanong,

Does Section 12 of the Automated Election Law prohibit the use of such prototype ACMs in connection with the 2025 elections?

Kung oo, bakit pinayagan ang prototype ACMs ng Miru?

Even a simple online search will reveal,

that there are at least 20 suppliers of automatic voting machines worldwide.

Despite this, the Comelec was able to attract only a single bid for the largest single contract in Philippine election history.

Dako naman tayo sa issue ng kanilang local partners.

Mr. President, just what is a construction company doing leasing voting machines to the Filipino people?

Bakit?

A construction company that appears to share principal office address of another company, St. Gerard Construction General Contractor and Development Corporation, blacklisted by the Department of Public Works and Highways, as shown by this document, Mr. President.

The two companies also share a common incorporator, a certain Pacifico F. Discon. Was St. Timothy incorporated to circumvent the blacklisting of St. Gerard?

There are also reports St. Timothy wrote the Comelec revoking the authority of a certain Mr. Jinbok Chung to represent the company in the contract.

For the procurement project, St. Timothy said that, given the magnitude of the potential liability, it was not fully informed of the scope of its responsibilities under the contract.

Totoo ba ito? If even a blacklisted company smells something fishy, maybe that should be considered a double red flag?

Next question.

Public Act No. 9184, otherwise known as the Government Procurement Reform Act, requires that all public procurement be done, with certain exceptions, through competitive bidding.

In a paper entitled, Intensifying Competition in Public Procurement by Tatray, Vorosmarty, and Juhas, published August of last year, it was found that,

quote,

encouraging intense competition in public procurement is of fundamental importance for the presence of a sufficient number of competitors and their active commitment to bidding is a key element of efficient public spendings, close quote.

In this controversy, it was confirmed that while five companies, including Dominion Voting Systems, Indra Philippines Incorporated,

Group Holdings Corporation, and Smartmatic, they purchased bidding documents, but all but Miru declined to submit bids.

Napakalaking kontrata. Wala ni isang ibang bidder. Yes, Smartmatic was disqualified because of its own money laundering controversies, but there were others. Bakit biglang naglaho na lang?

The Organization for Economic Cooperation.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, in its Guidelines for Fighting Bid Rigging in Public Procurement, defines bid suppression as an agreement among competitors in which one or more companies agree to refrain from bidding or to withdraw a previously submitted bid so that the designated winner's bid will be accepted.

In essence, bid suppression means that bidders,

other than the designated winner, do not submit bids or are prevented from doing so.

Some quarters are asking, is this what happened here?

Is this real competition or is the real competition in the back rooms of the halls of power?

I hope not.

This makes me wonder, Mr. President, how many other substantial contracts have been awarded?

How many other substantial contracts have been awarded to the lone entity who bothered to submit a bid?

Thus, I agree with Senator Angara, it appears it might be time to re-examine the legal framework we have set in place for public procurement to prevent the system from being gamed, rigged, and manipulated for private gain.

Let's bring back real competition in public bidding.

At ang aking huling tanong,

hindi lang po dahil public procurement requires the highest duty of care and responsibility from our public servants,

but also because,

since electoral machines are involved,

they strike at the very heart of our democracy.

Always, but most especially in these turbulent and divisive political times,

the people's right to suffrage must be protected from fraud or the perception of fraud and kept sacrosanct.

Salamat po, Mr. President.

Nagustuhan niyo ba ang ganitong pagtalakay?

Mag-follow sa Informador FB page at mag-subscribe sa Informador YouTube channel.

Ang Informador ay nilikha ng mga staff ni Atty. Ricky Tomotorgo,

aka Insurecto,

upang lalong lumawak ang inaabot ng pagpapalaganap ng katotohanan

at labanan ang fake news at kasinungalingan.