Election watchdog Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) on Saturday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to answer bribery allegations thrown against it.

In a radio interview, LENTE executive director Rona Ann Carlitos welcomed the “transparent” response of Comelec chairperson George Garcia.

“It is also right that he addressed it head on and did not just put it aside because it’s a direct attack on the Commission and the integrity of the procurement of machines,” Carlitos said.

“That’s what’s needed, you should be open. If you have nothing to hide, then you should be okay with the investigation and he even gave consent for the investigation of his accounts,” she added.

Garcia on Wednesday asked the Anti-Money Laundering Council to probe the allegations that he was accepting bribes from a South Korean firm through offshore banks.

This after Sagip Partylist Rep. Rodante Marcoleta accused him of receiving at least P1 billion worth of funds from the firm via offshore accounts.

Carlitos, however, said that the allegations will affect the credibility of the upcoming 2025 polls.

“Of course it will affect the credibility of the elections because what is being attacked there is the acquisition of new machines and the acquisition of a new provider,” Carlitos said.

“Usually when there is such a change there are always doubts or thoughts about what happened behind closed doors,” she added.

Comelec awarded in February the contract for vote-counting machines for the 2025 midterm elections to Miru Systems. The contract is worth P17.9 billion, lower than the Comelec’s budget of P18.8 billion.

The contract included 110,000 automated counting machines, 104,345 ballot boxes, and 2,200 CCS servers/laptops and printers. It also included the printing of 73,851,934 ballots, ballot papers and ballot verification.

“Let’s remember that the machine will actually count our votes. And if there is an attack on the machine, there is also an attack on the credibility and integrity that we will have in the coming year,” she added.