By Floro L. Mercene
COMELEC insiders are asking questions on the actuations of certain officials relative to the election modernization program, now effectively consigned to the dustbin of history.
One official is Augusto Lagman, who has filed a lawsuit against Comelec for awarding the contract for supplying the automated counting machines to the Mega Pacific consortium.
The Comelec modernization program was conceived in 1992 by then Chairman Christian S. Monsod. At the time, Lagman was Monsod’s chief IT consultant and was very much involved in the automation project.
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In l996, Comelec procured 42 counting machines from American Information Systems at $l5,000 each. During the l996 ARMM elections, the AIS counting machines did not perform as well as expected.
The congressional oversight committee reported that the machines failed in terms of speed and accuracy.
Gus Lagman did not raise a kick on the failure of the AIS machines.
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Even after the AIS machines failed during the l996 ARMM elections, Comelec again bought an additional 26 machines from American Information Systems. In the l998 elections, these machines simply refused to count. Having failed once, Comelec again bought the same machines.
Gus Lagman clearly knew that the first ARMM pilot had failed, yet he did not try to stop the purchase of these second batch of machines. After failing for the second time, why did he not speak up and complain?
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Christian Monsod is also very critical of Comelec for awarding the bid to Mega Pacific. He was instrumental in the start of the Comelec automation project way back in the early 90s and even during and after the two failed ARMM pilot tests.
Why are Messrs. Monsod and Lagman complaining against Comelec only now?
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In 2000 Joe Concepcion, chairman of Namfrel, proposed to then Comelec Chairman Harriet Demetriou that Comelec lease l,800 AIS counting machines from Toronto for the 200l elections.
Comelec turned down the offer. Aside from the three billion pesos which will be spent for the leasing cost, Comelec was wary of the deficiencies of the AIS machines. Mr. Lagman did not raise a kick against the offer of Concepcion.
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In 2002, then Comelec Chairman Alfredo Benipayo accepted the recommendation of the IT and civil society headed by Namfrel to establish the terms of reference and set the ceiling price for the automated counting system for the national elections to be bid out at l.3 billion pesos.
After bowing out of Comelec, Benipayo became the Solicitor General and defended Comelec’s purchase of the Mega Pacific counting machines at the Supreme Court.
However, he later admitted during a Senate hearing that he talked to a justice of the Supreme Court and secretly spoke against the Comelec which was his client at the time.
Soon after, in another lawsuit filed by Mega Pacific against Comelec, Benipayo again assailed the Comelec for alleged wrongdoing, a move described as treacherous and conduct unbecoming a lawyer.
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