October 4, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — One of the local partners of election technology provider Miru System has withdrawn from the joint venture, citing conflict of interest as some of its owners have plans to run in the 2025 midterm polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced yesterday.
At a press conference yesterday, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said that the poll body received a copy of the letter of withdrawal from St. Timothy Construction Corp. (STCC).
According to Garcia, the commission immediately referred to its Law Department the matter of STCC’s withdrawal for proper action and to look into the obligations of the remaining partners.
Garcia noted that STCC only provided the Net Financial Contracting Capacity (NFCC), a credit line, and is not involved in the technical aspect of the venture.
STCC is one of the four companies in the joint venture under Miru Systems that will supply the automated counting machines and other peripherals to be used for the May 2025 elections.
Before STCC’s withdrawal, Garcia said, the commission received information that some of its officials intend to run in the coming elections for a local post in Pasig City and for party-list elections.
“The Commission immediately conveyed its sentiment to the joint venture that we will not allow the integrity of the elections to be questioned simply because one of its owners would run in the 2025 elections,” Garcia disclosed.
He said the commission gave the particular partner the option to withdraw from the venture or disqualify the candidates “in the interest of clean and honest elections.”
The commission, Garcia said, sees no problem with STCC’s withdrawal, saying it even gave the poll body relief from possibly dealing with complications involving the company.
“As of today, they delivered 50 percent of the machines and 100 percent of all the peripherals. More or less they have complied with their milestones,” he noted.
“At this point, we are not concerned because their compliance are more than enough to show their dedication and capability to fulfill their commitments in its contract,” he added.
He further noted that the Comelec would likely require the remaining partners under the joint venture to provide a letter of credit or surety bond equivalent to the NFCC.
Miru Systems assured the public that STCC’s withdrawal would not affect the contract with the poll body since it did not contribute to the development of the voting machines or other services to be used in next year’s polls.
“We remain steadfast in our preparations and have already delivered substantial milestones within the contract. In fact, our JV has been able to deliver ahead of schedule, with 50,000 Automated Counting Machines already received in the country and undergoing thorough acceptance tests, along with 100 percent of all other election peripherals and brand new state-of-the-art printing machines,” Miru Systems said in a statement.
“We are also moving forward with the training of technicians and setting up 110 repair hubs nationwide, as well as servers for all data centers.”
More than 7 million new voters
The number of those seeking to register and vote in the coming May 2025 midterm elections has exceeded seven million, according to the Commission on Elections.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia reported that they have processed a total of 7,436,555 applications during the seven-month voter registration period that ended on Sept. 30.
Calabarzon posted the biggest number of applicants with 1,223,159 followed by the National Capital Region with 997,062 and Central Luzon with 834,467.
Cordillera Administrative Region recorded the lowest number of applications with only 111,410, and Caraga with 203,132.
Females accounted for 3,805,587 of the total applications processed while males comprised 3,630,968.
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