A graft complaint has been filed against Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairperson George Erwin M. Garcia and seven other poll officials before the Office of the Ombudsman on Tuesday, August 20, in connection with the P18-billion contract awarded to South Korean firm Miru Systems for the 2025 automated elections.
Also charged were Comelec Electoral Contest and Adjudication Department Director IV Allen Francis B. Abaya, Education and Information Department Director IV John Rex C. Laudiangco, Election and Information Department Director IV Divina E. Blas-Perez, Assistant Regional Election Director Jovencio G. Balanquit, Education and Information Department Director III Abigail Claire C. Llacuna, Election Records and Statistics Department Director IV Celia B. Romero, and Political Affairs and Finance Department Head Efraim Q. Bag-id.
The complainant, former Caloocan congressman Edgar "Egay" Erice, wanted to hold the Comelec officials accountable for purchasing another set of vote-counting machines (VCMs) even though the ones it earlier purchased from Smartmatic during the 2010 and 2013 elections can be replaced free of charge.
Comelec Commissioner Rey Bulay proposed on March 27, 2023 that the VCMs purchased from Smartmatic be declared "unserviceable," and his proposal was approved on March 29. This caused Comelec to execute a contract agreement with Miru on March 11, 2024 for the lease of VCMs and other election paraphernalia needed for the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC) project.
Erice said in his complaint that the warranty provided in the contract between Comelec and Smartmatic should have covered the "unserviceable" VCMs and there was no need for Comelec to enter into a new contract with Miru.
"The VCMs declared unserviceable were still covered by a warranty, hence may be replaced free-of-charge. Chairman Garcia acted with manifest partiality when he decided to unilaterally abandon Comelec's contract with Smartmatic and award the FASTrAC project in favor of Miru," Erice alleged.
Erice also claimed that Miru made "misrepresentations" when it presented itself as being in a joint venture when it placed its bid for the FASTrAC project, since it was not such. The fact that Garcia and the special bids and awards committee for automated election systems (SBAC-AES) declared Miru as post-qualified showed the "favor" they gave the company,he futher alleged.
"The government already spent for the acquisition of the VCMs from Smartmatic and spent again for the refurbishment of the same VCMs. With the FASTrAC project, Chairman Garcia made the government spend again for lease of VCMs despite the government already having functioning VCMs," Erice's complaint stated.
"Even if the Smartmatic VCMs were unserviceable, the government need not spend again for the lease of another set of machines when the purportedly unserviceable VCMs can be replaced free of charge," it added.