(UPDATES) WITH only 221 days until the 2025 midterm elections, a partner of the country’s IT service provider Miru Systems has pulled out of the joint venture, Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman George Garcia announced Thursday.
In a press conference following the third day of filing of certificates of candidacy, Garcia said St. Timothy Construction Corp., which was supposed to provide financing to the joint venture, withdrew from their partnership with Miru.
“We received a letter from our joint venture with Miru Systems that a third partner withdrew from the partnership,” Garcia said in Filipino. “This means that the St. Timothy [Construction Corp.] has officially withdrawn from our joint venture, which was accepted by our two remaining partners in the joint venture.”
Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman George Garcia
“So we took action and referred this to our law department, where they will study what is the action of the Comelec and at the same time to study what are the obligations with our remaining partners,” he added.
Garcia said St. Timothy withdrew because some of its owners were running in the upcoming elections, and conveyed their intentions to the Comelec en banc.
“We will not allow the integrity of our election to be questioned because one of our contracting partners or the owners will run in the national and local elections,” he said.
They gave the partner two choices, either St. Timothy withdraws from the joint venture or the Comelec could be compelled to disqualify the company’s candidates, due to a conflict of interest.
Garcia said the Comelec’s partners accepted the withdrawal and conveyed it to Miru Systems, and that they will still fulfill their commitments.
As of Thursday, the joint venture partners delivered 50 percent of the vote counting machine and all of the peripherals, with all servers in their respective data centers.
Garcia urged the public not to worry about the pullout of one of its partners.
“The public should not worry … We will require something from the remaining joint venture partners to ensure that the interests of the nation, the commission and the people will be properly protected,” he said.
On March 19, a Senate panel questioned the inclusion of a construction company in the IT joint venture.
Sen. Imee Marcos said St. Timothy’s license had expired, while Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III questioned why a construction firm would be involved in the joint venture to deploy election technology.
A representative from Miru Systems said at the time that St. Timothy would be a “financial supporter” in the joint venture.
The poll chief said the withdrawal of St. Timothy would not affect the production of machines because MIRU has two other partners in the joint venture.
St. Timothy, as per the estimate of Commissioner Rey Bulay, had some 2 percent contribution to the funding for the production of the machines.
Garcia said the production of the ACMs, which is now at 60 percent, would continue and that the balance would be delivered in line with the agreement with MIRU Systems.
In February, the Comelec awarded to Miru Systems the P18 billion contract for the lease of 110,000 customized ACMs and other peripheral services to be used in the 2025 polls.
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