Comelec bars Smartmatic
Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia said the decision was ‘immediately executory unless restrained’
Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia (Photo from PNA)
Daily TribuneComelec chairman George Erwin Garcia said the decision was ‘immediately executory unless restrained’
Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia (Photo from PNA)
The Commission on Elections dropped the curtain on Smartmatic, barring them from all future electoral services, including in the 2025 midterm polls.
"We disqualified Smartmatic from participating in all Comelec procurements," Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia told reporters in a Viber message Wednesday.
Garcia made the announcement after the poll body's weekly en banc session.
"We have to maintain the integrity of our electoral process — for the country and the people," he said.
When asked if Smartmatic could appeal the Comelec decision, Garcia said the decision is up to its lawyers.
"It is hard to say what their remedy should be. It's for the Smartmatic lawyers to decide," he said, adding that the commission's decision was "immediately executory unless restrained."
The petition against Smartmatic was filed by former Information and Communications Technology secretary Eliseo Rio Jr., former Comelec commissioner Augusto Lagman, Franklin Ysaac and Leonardo Odono, collectively known as TNTrio, on 15 June.
According to the petitioners' allegations, Smartmatic "failed to comply with certain minimum system capabilities that resulted in serious and grave irregularities in the transmission and receipt of election returns" during the 2022 polls.
Garcia, however, said the petition of Rio and the others had nothing to do with the poll body's decision to bar Smartmatic.
Presidential Adviser for Poverty Alleviation Secretary Larry Gadon hails the decision of Comelec on Wednesday to disqualify Smartmatic from participating in all procurements in the upcoming elections.
"I hail the decision of Comelec in disqualifying Smartmatic from participating in any upcoming and future elections in the Philippines," Gadon said.