• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO / GILBERT P. BAYORAN
If Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez will be the one to decide on former Mayor Evelio Leonardia’s request, he will go for manual counting so that the latter can accept the outcome if ever Benitez will win again the 2025 elections, fair and square, Caesar Distrito, spokesperson of Benitez, said in a statement.
Leonardia, who is running for congressman of the Lone District of Bacolod against Benitez, on Friday sent Commission on Elections chairman George Erwin Garcia an urgent request for the manual counting and manual tallying at the precinct level of votes for local candidates in Bacolod City, before electronic transmission of election results are made to the City Board of Canvassers in the forthcoming May 12 elections.
The move was in reaction to the recent award made by the Benitez administration of a P2.1 billion public private partnership (PPP) contract to Highdata Infrastructure Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of SMS Global Technologies, Inc.
SMS Global is a service provider of Comelec for the 2025 overseas online voting, which according to the Leonardia camp, has been questioned by several OFWs in social media posts for allegedly not correctly reflecting the names of the candidates they voted for.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
“This is a clear and significant conflict of interest that compromises the sanctity of the ballot because of the partnership forged by concerned parties,” which is how Leonardia described the PPP deal.
Leonardia also publicly challenged Benitez to support this appeal to Comelec to implement manual counting in Bacolod. This way, everything will be transparent and no longer be susceptible to doubt and suspicion.
Distrito said Benitez will not even file an objection before the Comelec, and will leave it to them to decide whether to go for manual or automated election.
However, as I believe that Atty. Leonardia being a lawyer, he understands that Comelec is required to conduct all national and local elections through an Automated Election System (AES), as mandated by Republic Act No. 8436, as amended by Republic Act No. 9369. Under this law, the counting and canvassing of votes must be done electronically, with manual counting permitted only in specific cases, he said.
The Supreme Court had also ruled that manual counting of votes may be resorted to only under exceptional circumstances, such as when the Automated Election System fails or is incapable of generating a reliable and accurate result. In Loong v. Commission on Elections, G.R. No. 133676 (1999), the Court upheld the conduct of a manual count solely upon a clear showing of technical failure in the automated process, Distrito said.
It should be noted that the law and jurisprudence do not provide for a manual count based solely on allegations of conflict of interest or procurement irregularities involving an alleged service provider, unless these result in actual, demonstrable failure or unreliability of the automated system, he added.
A candidate cannot request a manual counting of votes during the May 12 elections solely on the ground that his opponent awarded a contract to a company related to the Comelec service provider. Manual counting is permitted only in cases of technical failure or unreliability of the automated system, not on the basis of alleged conflicts of interest or procurement issues.
Leonardia’s ground of an alleged conflict of interest of Comelec due to being a service provider of SMS Global Technologies Inc. in the overseas voting, had already been strongly refuted in the earlier statement made by Benitez. The city has no contract with SMS Global but with High Data Infra Corp, and even so, they are involved in the overseas voting and have no connection with the local or national elections, Distrito said.
He further stressed that the system cannot operate within the Philippines.
SMSGT and Highdata have no access to Comelec data, infrastructure, or systems, the Benitez camp said, adding that the project was lawfully processed and awarded under the PPP Code through a transparent and compliant process.
SMS Global Technologies, Inc. reportedly has a paid-up capital of less than P2 million only, but was awarded a multi-billion midnight deal last January 24 by Benitez, with the resulting PPP contract ratified on March 5 by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod, or just 23 days before the election ban started on March 28 for that kind of government transactions in LGUs.
Benitez and incumbent councilors, who approved this PPP contract, are currently running under one slate for the local and national elections
Leonardia is calling on all citizens of Bacolod to be watchful of attempts to manipulate the electronic counting and transmission of votes in order to safeguard the sanctity of the ballots in the May 12 elections.
Benitez has urged all parties to refrain from spreading misinformation, stressing also that the City Government remains committed to transparent governance and electoral integrity.*
