Rep. Rodante Marcoleta of SAGIP party-list group on Tuesday urged his colleagues to carry on with their ongoing inquiry on alleged irregularities in the P18-billion automated vote-counting contract between the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and controversial South Korean firm Miru Systems Co. Ltd.
Marcoleta, a lawyer, also flagged violations of Republic Act (RA) 9369 or the Automated Election Law should the Comelec will allow Miru to proceed in using its reportedly “two-systems-in-one” to collect and count votes in the 2025 midterm polls, to be conducted just close to one year from now.
At a hearing of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms on Tuesday, Marcoleta recalled that the Supreme Court last month nullified the Comelec’s resolution disqualifying Smartmatic from the bidding for next year’s automated elections supplier. Smartmatic had been the automated machines and services provider during elections held between 2010 and 2022.
“The Supreme Court nullified the [Comelec] resolution because it was committed with grave abuse of discretion. Yet, the bidding was not nullified — so there’s inconsistency,” Marcoleta pointed out.
The Comelec has defended the awarded contract to Miru together with its similarly controversial local partners. The poll body had even warned of election preparation delays if they reneged on the deal.
“Smartmatic was disqualified even before it was able to submit its bid; even the legal requirements were not considered. So there’s a violation” on the part of the Comelec, the party-list representative noted.
“The Supreme Court used the doctrine of operative fact, which will only apply if there is good faith. So the Comelec should establish that there is good faith,” he explained.
However, Marcoleta pointed to the House committee’s own minutes showing that their previous meetings highlighted the many controversies surrounding Miru and the other members of its consortium.
Lawmakers and members of the House panel had been wary about the failures of automated elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iraq, and other countries where Miru had taken part. Marcoleta cited the report from Reuters last March as a testament to this.
Some lawmakers had likewise feared that corruption and malfunction issues concerning Miru will revert the Philippines to the “dark ages” of manual voting and counting, hence tarnishing the credibility of next year’s local and national elections.
Marcoleta expressed his concern as well regarding reports that Miru plans to use a combination of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) and Optical Mark Reader (OMR) automated counting machines.
This so-called two-systems-in-one that Miru wants to roll-out for the 2025 polls has never been used elsewhere in the world, Marcoleta pointed out.
“Under our Automated Election Law, Miru has to first prove that this hybrid system has been tested in other jurisdictions. To my recollection, reports showed that Miru had used these two systems, but separately,” he said.
“The DRE system was utilized in Congo, where 45 percent of the voting stations encountered so many problems. Meanwhile, OMR was utilized in Iraq, where 70 percent of voting stations also met certain difficulties, technical and otherwise. But the combination between the two systems has not been tried nor tested anywhere, in any jurisdiction,” he noted.
“So if we will allow Miru to apply the two systems (in-one) without showing that this has been tested anywhere, there will be a clear violation of the Automated Election Law,” Marcoleta warned.
In this regard, Marcoleta said Miru’s plan to tap both DRE and OMR machines in next year’s elections is “a very important matter that will also, or must also be addressed by the committee in the most urgent time.”