THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) will appeal the decision of the Supreme Court overturning the disqualification of election technology provider Smartmatic, its chairperson George Garcia said on Thursday.
Garcia said Comelec would be filing a motion for reconsideration to ask the high court to reconsider its decision that was announced Wednesday.
Earlier, a Comelec spokesperson said the body accepted the ruling considering that the Supreme Court clarified that it was not voiding the contract for the vote-counting machines for the 2025 midterm elections won by Miru Systems of South Korea.
“Lumalabas kung ano yung nangyari, valid na po lahat yan. Yung award namin wala na pong problema. Wala na pong effect, therefore, sa ating halalaan sa 2025,” Garcia said in the dzBB interview.
On Wednesday, the high court’s new spokesperson Camille Ting announced the decision which overturned the disqualification of Smartmatic.
“The Supreme Court held that Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion when it disqualified Smartmatic before it had submitted any bids, without any reference to the eligibility requirements prescribed by its Bids and Awards Committee,” Ting said. The Comelec “implemented a discretionary pre-qualification regime antithetical to Government Procurement and Reform Act,”
