Former Commission on Elections chairman Andres Bautista, who was recently indicted in Florida for allegedly taking bribes from Smartmatic, is not in US custody, a US Department of Justice official said.
“Mr. Bautista is not in US custody, and we decline to comment beyond our press release,” US DOJ spokesperson Nicole Navas Oxman told GMA News.
In a separate statement sent to ABS-CBN News, Oxman said there is no date yet for Bautista’s hearing in the US.
Oxman said the court can only decide on the amount of bail for Bautista if the former poll body chief surrenders.
“A US judge would determine bail/bond conditions when a defendant is presented in court so no determinations have been made yet,” Oxman said.
Bautista, 60, was indicted by a US federal grand jury in Florida for allegedly taking bribes from Smartmatic, a company that provided voting machines for the country’s 2016 elections.
Bautista’s two co-defendants — Smartmatic founder Roger Piñate and former Smartmatic vice president of hardware development Jorge Miguel Vásquez — surrendered to a Miami federal court on Monday and are currently out on bail.
Piñate was granted an $8.5 million bond while Vasquez was released on a $1 million bond.
Comelec banned Smartmatic last year from bidding on election contracts, but the Supreme Court overturned the ban in April.
Bautista, who headed Comelec from 2015 to 2017, awarded Smartmatic a $199 million contract to supply the Philippines with 94,000 voting machines for the 2016 presidential election won by former leader Rodrigo Duterte.
Bautista earlier denied any wrongdoing, writing on X that he “did not ask for nor receive any bribe money from Smartmatic or any other entity.”
