A PETITION has been filed in the Supreme Court against the Commission on Elections over its preparation for the conduct of the elections in May this year.
In their petition for certiorari, prohibition and mandamus dated March 31, 2016, the losing bidders Northern Worx KPO Inc., NextIX Inc. and Kit Properties Inc. Joint Venture asked the Supreme Court to stop the Comelec from awarding the contract for the establishment of the National Technical Support Center or NTSC for the May 9 elections to Smartmatic-TIM.
The petitioners also asked the Supreme Court to compel the Comelec to have the project awarded to them for having submitted the lowest bid.
The petitioners made their move even as the Comelec on Tuesday warned voters they may face an election offense by bringing home their voters’ receipts and reporting petty claims during the voting on May 9.
Comelec chairman Andres Bautista said they were looking to file election offenses case against voters who would escape from the polling precinct with their receipts and then file “frivolous complaints” that could delay the election process.
“Our problem is, for example, there were 800 ballots cast and yet we only have 700 voters receipts,” Bautista said.
“That is a possibility.”
The NTSC is the unit mandated to render technical assistance to each component of the elections.
Named as respondents in the petition were the Comelec and the Joint Venture of Smartmatic-TIM Corp., Total Information Management Corp., Smartmatic International Holtint BV, Jarltech International Inc and LRA Pacific Management Consulting Inc.
In a pre-bid conference conducted on Jan. 11, 2016, only two bidders participated: the joint ventures of Northern Worx and Smartmatic-TIM.
The project has an approved budget of more than P122 million.
On Jan. 25, 2016, the Comelec-Bids and Awards Committee declared Northern Worx as the one who submitted the lowest bid of P90.88 million against Smartmatic-TIM which bid of P122.71 million.
However, the BAC, in a resolution dated Feb. 15, 2016, disqualified Northern Worx after the post-qualification conducted by the BAC’s Technical Working Group.
The petitioner’s joint venture protested their disqualification but it was denied by the Comelec en banc on the ground that the net financial contracting capacity was not at least equal to the approved budget for the contract. With Sara Susanne D. Fabunan