Palace rules out ‘no-election’ scenario amid legal issues with PCOS machines

Malacañang on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of the 2016 national elections not pushing through amid legal issues hounding the use of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.

At a press briefing, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda labelled as “speculative” the “no-elections” scenario being painted by some individuals following the Supreme Court’s decision to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from getting the services of Smartmatic-TIM for the repair and refurbishing of the vote-counting machines.

“Meron tayong 2016 elections. Nasa Saligang Batas po ‘yan. We don’t have a plan to stay a day longer than June 30, 2016. So, we would like to ensure the elections would push through,” Lacierda said.

He added that the Palace has full confidence that the Comelec will be able to address legal issues with the PCOS machines to ensure full preparations for the 2016 polls.

“The Comelec is mindful of its responsibilities so we will defer to Comelec whatever and however action that they will take,” the Palace official said.

Last week, the high court issued a temporary restraining order on the implementation of the extended warranty contract for the repair and refurbishing of the PCOS machines dated January 30, 2015.

A petition has been filed with the SC seeking to declare as null and void both Comelec Resolution No. 9922 and the signed contract between the poll body and Smartmatic.

Comelec Resolution No. 9922 approved Smartmatic's P300-million "Extended Warranty Proposal (Program 1)" through direct contracting. Through this resolution, Smartmatic was allowed to examine and repair the 80,000 PCOS machines. —KBK, GMA News