Ex-lawmaker files petition vs Comelec, SoKor firm contract

Former lawmaker Edgar Erice on Thursday filed a petition for certiorari asking the Supreme Court (SC) to declare null and void the contract between the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and South Korean firm Miru for the 2025 midterm elections.

In a press conference, Erice criticized Miru anew for presenting a prototype machine for Comelec's evaluation.

He stated that it violates the law, highlighting that Republic Act No. 9369 prohibits this.

"Hindi pa ito nagamit ng Miru sa anumang eleksyon. Ito po ay pinagbabawal ng batas. Ang eleksyon po natin sa 2025 ay magiging guinea pig kung matutuloy itong kontratang ito (Miru has never used it in any election. This is prohibited by law. Our election in 2025 will be a guinea pig if this contract continues)," Erice said.

"High-risk po. Maraming red flags ang Miru. Very dangerous po para sa eleksyon sa 2025 para magkaroon tayo ng tahimik at maayos na eleksyon (This is high-risk. Miru has many red flags. It's very dangerous for the 2025 elections when we're aiming for a peaceful and orderly election)," he added.

Erice then cited an election failure in the Democratic Republic of Congo where they had to postpone their polls for six months because Miru failed to produce machines.

He also pointed another election failure in Iraq where it was found that 79 percent of its election machines produced by Miru were dysfunctional, thus it reverted to manual elections.

"Yung Miru po walang experience sa Philippine setting. Ang kanilang kinuhang partner ay Timothy Construction, wala rin pong experience sa elections... Yun pong IT provider, wala rin pong experience (Miru has no experience in the Philippine setting. The partner they hired is Timothy Construction, who also has no experience in elections... The IT provider also has no experience)," he said.

"So napakadelikado nung magma-manage ng elections natin (So, the one to manage our elections is dangerous)," he added.

Erice also alleged that the contract was "highly anomalous" and called it "a robbery in progress."

Erice said he is also contemplating on filing an impeachment complaint against Comelec officials.

Comelec awarded the contract for vote-counting machines for the 2025 polls to Miru System.

The contract is worth P17.9 billion, lower than the poll body's budget of P18.8 billion.

The contract included 110,000 automated counting machines, 104,345 ballot boxes, and 2,200 consolidated canvassing system servers/laptops and printers.

It also includes the printing of 73,851,934 ballots, ballot papers, and ballot verification.

On Wednesday, the SC overturned the ban on automated election system provider Smartmatic preventing it from bidding poll contracts.

The SC said Comelec committed a grave abuse of discretion.

It, however, said that the ruling does not affect the contract of Miru Systems.

'We will face it'

In a separate interview, Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia said they will face the case.

"Haharapin natin, yayakapin natin. At welcome nga rin po sa amin kung gusto nilang kuwestyunin yung pagkakabigay ng award ng Miru Systems (We will face it, we will embrace it. And we also welcome it if they want to question the awarding of Miru Systems)," Garcia said.

He, however, said that if they were to be stopped, that's where the problem lies.

"Diyan po magkakaproblema sapagkat maiimbyerna po yung preparasyon natin kaya nga po sinunod talaga namin yung timeline namin (That's where the problem will be because it will affect our preparations, that's why we really followed our timeline)," he said.

"So any day of delay po, maco-compromise, masa-sacrifice yung eleksyon natin sa 2025 (So any day of delay, our election in 2025 will be compromised and sacrificed)," he added.

Garcia maintained that the procurement they made was made public and confident that there have been no accusations or allegations of bribery in the Commission.

"Ang kanilang mga akusasyon ay tungkol sa technical matters, bakit prototype... yun po madali naming sagutin. Walang akusasyon ng korapsyon, dahil talaga pong wala. Inayos namin ang aming procurement ng lahat ng aspeto ng automated system ng 2025 (Their accusations are about technical matters, why it's a prototype... we can easily answer that. There are no accusations of corruption, because there's none. We have adjusted our procurement of all aspects of the automated system."