PPCRV urges Comelec to award contract for lease of 70k PCOS machines

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting on Thursday urged the Commission on Elections to push through with the lease of 70,000 optical mark reader to allow it to fully prepare for the 2016 polls.

 

But Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., co-chairman of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on the Automated Election System, did not buy the idea, saying it will make the 80,000 precinct count optical scan machines earlier bought by the poll body useless.

 

During the JCOC-AES hearing at the Senate, lawyer Howard Calleja, counsel fo PPCRV, said they were present in all of the biddings conducted by the Comelec and they believed that those were competitive, fair, and transparent.

 

“It is already nine months before the elections and there is already a winning bidder for that 70,000 additional (units) only waiting for notice of award. So as not to lose anymore time for the elections, we urge [the] Comelec, hopefully with the support of this committee, to also award the next 70,000 because that is the only thing that is waiting,” he said.

 

He added that the winning bidder, which he did not mention, has already passed the post-qualifying process and is already qualified.  

 

“With that we can prepare already for the 2016 elections, we will be using the same system. We believe that the supplier will be the same so it will be one and the same PCOS machine and we don’t have any doubt since 2010, 2013 election has been certified by the PPCRV as honest, credible, and fair,” he said.

 

“We do not have any doubt that the same will happen in the 2016 elections given enough time preparation, that it would also be credible honest and fair. May we request the Comelec to go ahead, bite the bullet, your honors, and award accordingly,” Calleja added.

 

Pimentel, however, asked what will happen to the other PCOS machines already with the Comelec.

 

“We will ask the PPCRV what we should do to the 80,000 machines we have already bought. Nahihinayangan ako e,” he said.

 

Calleja said they are also taking that into consideration “but as of today, the issue that we are looking at is the credibility of the  2016 elections and the need to prepare adequately.”

 

In an interview after the hearing, Pimentel said he would caution the Comelec against it especially if there will be an option to purchase the same machines.

 

“I will caution them sa option to purchase because look at our 80,000 na binili na natin, lying idle ngayon. Dapat magamit yung luma kasi binili na natin yun. Ngayon merong option to buy itong bago, bibilhin pa ba yung bago considering yung experience natin sa 80,000 na hindi na magamit,” he said.

 

Comelec chairman Andres Bautista said they will take into consideration the suggestion of PPCRV.

 

“We welcome that suggestion and we will take that into account. Again the PPCRV has been involved in many elections so their advice has weight and we will take that into account,” 

 

Over the weekend, the second round of public bidding for the repair of 80,000 PCOS machines was declared a failure. — RSJ, GMA News