The Commission on Elections (Comelec) En Banc has granted the petition to disqualify and disallow Smartmatic Philippines, Inc. to participate in any public bidding process for elections.

In a 17-page resolution, the Comelec En Banc said the decision was in the exercise of its administrative power to decide all matters affecting the election and in pursuit of its constitutional mandate. 

It said that at the current stage of the procurement process for the 2025 Automated Election System (AES), the poll body, as head of the procuring entity, cannot review the qualifications of Smartmatic. 

However, it explained that the commission, in the exercise of its plenary powers, may disqualify a potential bidder from participating in its procurement processes. 

"In a plethora of cases, the Supreme Court (SC)has repeatedly held that there can hardly be any doubt that the text and intent of this constitutional provision is to give the commission all the necessary and incidental powers for it to achieve the holding of free, orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible elections," the resolution read.

"The task of ensuring electoral integrity necessarily includes maintaining the public's confidence in the elections. To discharge this duty completely and effectively, the commission should also assure the public that this obligation extends to its partners," it further stated.

Comelec recognized the imminent threat to the strength and integrity of the country's democratic process in the charges filed against former Comelec chairman Andy Bautista by the United States (US) government for allegedly receiving bribes in exchange for awarding a contract for election machines to Smartmatic Corp.

"The charges against Smartmatic and former chairman Bautista are of public knowledge and tend to cause speculation and distrust in integrity of the electoral process," the resolution read.

Back in June, a petition was filed seeking the disqualification of Smartmatic from participating in the procurement for the 2025 AES. 

The petitioners include former Comelec commissioner Augusto Lagman, former Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) secretary and Comelec Advisory Council chairman Eliseo Rio, Jr; former Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) president Franklin Ysaac; and retired Col. Leonardo Odoño.

The petitioners--using the information and data from Comelec itself--discovered serious irregularities in the AES which Smartmatic had provided and deployed during the May 2022 elections.

They said that it involves discrepancies between the transmission logs and reception logs of election returns from the precinct level to the poll body's Transparency Server (TS).

But in the resolution, the Comelec En Banc stated that no irregularities attended the conduct of the 2022 national and local 3lections. 

They added that allegations that the petitioners are pertaining to such as the alleged inconsistency in the ratio of transmitted results, the use of single AP address, and alleged discrepancies in the transmission and election returns have been sufficiently addressed by the Commission at length.