THE Supreme Court has been asked to cite in contempt Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairperson George Garcia for making a statement about a pending petition challenging the legality of the P17.9 billion Automated Election System (AES) contract for the 2025 national and local elections that was awarded to Miru Systems Co.
Former Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice referred to Garcia’s statement that the poll body would resort to manual counting should the high court void the contract.
Erice said that Garcia violated the sub judice rule.
“In making the above statements, Chairman Garcia, speaking in his capacity as Chairman of the Comelec, threatened this Court that an adverse ruling will result in a return to the conduct of a manual election,” Erice said, adding that Garcia’s statement was irresponsible.
In his petition, Erice claimed that the Comelec had shown grave abuse of discretion by awarding the contract to Miru while disqualifying Smartmatic-TIM Corporation.
Contradicting Comelec’s assertion that Smartmatic’s vote counting machines (VCMs) were unserviceable due to a “lack of spare parts,” Erice explained that Smartmatic was contractually bound to fix them and provide spare parts until 2025.
“Comelec declared the VCMs unserviceable kahit serviceable pa. They declared them unserviceable because there were supposedly no spare parts. However, the contract obligates Smartmatic to provide the spare parts,” Erice said.
He also divulged that Miru would use prototype machines, which are unreliable due to being untested. He likened this to a “robbery in progress.”
Comelec’s decision to declare the 98,000 VCMs used in previous elections as “unserviceable” due to their age and lack of available spare parts further fueled the dispute.
Additionally, in 2023, the Comelec barred Smartmatic from participating in any procurement activities of the poll body, citing bribery allegations involving former Comelec chairperson Juan Andres “Andy” Bautista and the awarding of a contract for election machines to Smartmatic Corp.
