Procurement Act to be suspended for ARMM poll automation

Comelec to adopt a one system, one province setup

By Veronica Uy - INQUIRER.net
The Joint Congressional Committee on Automated Elections has agreed to provide legal cover to the poll body by suspending the Government Procurement Reform Act to pave the way for the automation of the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao this August.

The suggestion, which came from Senators Edgardo Angara and Juan Ponce-Enrile, was accepted by Comelec Chairman Jose Melo, who initially told the upper house that the poll body won't be able to automate the ARMM polls for lack of time.

The two senators proposed to file a joint congressional resolution that would give everything the Comelec will need to automate the only elections before the 2010 presidential and senatorial polls.

In his presentation to the body, Melo said he and the other poll commissioners were wary of allowing bidders who have "substantially complied" with the requirements of both the Poll Automation Law and the Procurement Act to participate in the bid.

Of the eight parties that got bid documents from the Comelec, only one made it, forcing the Comelec to stop its plan to automate the ARMM polls. (The Procurement Act, which sets the policies and details the procedures for all government purchases, mandates that having a single bidder is equivalent to a failed bid.)

Comelec executive director Jose Tolentino, who is part of the bidding and awards committee, said they conducted another bid, which failed to attract more bidders. He said that for the automation to push through and based on their timeline, the bids should have been awarded by April 3.

Over and above the objections of the Advisory Council, Comelec thus abandoned poll automation in ARMM altogether and started to prepare for manual elections. The Advisory Council, which was created by the Poll Automation Law to recommend the technologies that might be used, recommended that Comelec proceed even with bidders who have "substantially complied."

Howard Calleja, who as official of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting is a member of the Advisory Council, explained that having a memory stick instead of a compact disk or a different-sized paper should qualify as having "substantially complied."

After the hearing, Melo said the poll body would re-open the bidding for automation in the provinces of Lanao Del Sur, Maguindanao, Sharif Kabunsuan, and Basilan on the suggestion of Makati Representative Teodoro "Teddy Boy" Locsin Jr. for a one system-one province setup.

Melo said he wanted to exclude Sulu and Tawi-tawi from poll automation as these provinces would not meet the basic technical requirements on power and accessibility.

Locsin and Angara noted the poll body's apprehension of not following the law to the letter after the numerous controversies, primary of which was the wiretapping case where the President was alleged to have called up a poll commissioner asking him to ensure a million votes lead over her rival. The poll body also received a lot of flak for the conduct of the 2007 senatorial elections in ARMM.

Aside from Melo, the poll body is now composed of Commissioners Rene Sarmiento, Nicodemo Ferrer, Romeo Brawner, and Moslemen Macarambon.

Members of the congressional committee alternately threatened, castigated, and appealed to the poll body to implement the automation law which was passed in 1997 and amended in 2007.

The congressional body refused to accept their explanation why it could not automate the ARMM polls or even Melo's proposal to postpone the ARMM polls.

Earlier, Enrile threatened to cancel the Comelec budget of P837 million for the ARMM elections if it would insist on not implementing the law and proceeding with a manual system.

Representative Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan De Oro stressed the importance of conducting some form of automated elections before the 2010 national elections.

Melo will meet with the Comelec commissioners, its senior staff, and the various suppliers for the automated elections to discuss what they would need in the joint congressional resolution.

Senator Richard Gordon, co-chairman of the committee, said the body would meet with the Comelec again on Monday so that the committee could draft the resolution and enact it into law before May 11, the deadline for the Comelec to proceed with testing the equipment and software for the automation.