Commission on Elections chairman George Erwin Garcia said the Comelec will defend its position after technology provider Smartmatic filed a Motion for Reconsideration in its ongoing legal dispute with the agency.

"This is expected. The Comelec is willing and ready to defend its position. At the end of the day, the Supreme Court has the final say on the matter," Garcia said in a Viber message.

On 29 November, the Comelec announced the official disqualification of Smartmatic from all procurements.

The petition against Smartmatic was filed by former Department of Information and Communications Technology chief Eliseo Mijares Rio Jr., Augusto Cadelina Lagman, Franklin Fayloga Ysaac and Leonardo Olivera Odono on 15 June.

According to their 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.

Smartmatic questioned its disqualification, saying that the basis for the ban was false and non-existent.

Smartmatic questioned the decision after the Comelec en banc cited as ground for disqualification its alleged collusion with former Comelec chairperson Juan Andres "Andy" Bautista "in exchange for awarding a contract for election machines to Smartmatic Corp."

Smartmatic said it has not been indicted, or is facing any formal charge, in the United States in relation to the former poll chief's case.

"Thus, we can categorically state that the basis of our disqualification is not only FALSE, but NON-EXISTENT. A false accusation and, more so, a disqualification on the basis of a non-existent grounds is not only legally and morally wrong, but plain unfair," Smartmatic said in a statement.