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By Angelo S. Samonte, Reporter
THERE is nothing irregular with
the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Philippines
and Barbados since the Caribbean state is a sovereign country,
Malacañang said on Friday.
Reacting to reports that the
Philippines hastily forged diplomatic ties with Barbados because of
the poll automation issue, Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd
said that this was just speculation.
It was reported that a
businessman had disclosed that the First Couple are partners of
Smartmatic-TIM, the consortium that bagged the poll automation deal.
The consortium’s financial bid
stood at P7.2 billion, significantly lower than the P11.3-billion
supplemental budget awarded to the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
by the government in March.
The Philippines formally forged
diplomatic relations with Barbados on June 22 in a ceremony in the
Philippine Mission to the United Nations in New York City.
Bello said that the people as
well as the critics of the government should leave everything to the
Comelec because it is handling the conduct of elections and poll
biddings.
“The conduct of the bidding
process, the term of reference, they are the people best to [ask] on
matters [pertaining to] elections,” he added. “You know, in
elections, it’s the call of the Comelec.”
Smartmatic became controversial
when a Senate inquiry found that the documents submitted by the
company were authenticated by the Philippine consul in Washington
D.C., which a lawmaker said was a violation of bidding rules.
Comelec assurance
On Friday, the Comelec said that
the breakdown of machines to be used in the 2010 presidential
elections would not result in a failure of those elections.
Smartmatic has assured that it is
prepared for the worst-case scenario, Comelec spokesman James
Jimenez said.
Jimenez added that there is also
a core group within the Comelec whose job is to look at possible
problems that may aise during actual counting of votes.
He said that if a machine fails
to read the ballots, the Comelec can revert to manual counting and
later transmit the result of the elections to another machine.
Thus, Jimenez added, the Comelec
can declare the winners in the national elections within two days.
He said that the winning
candidates in the local elections can be proclaimed by their local
registrars as they finish counting.
According to Jimenez, the
contract between the Comelec and Smartmatic will be signed next
week.
With Sammy Martin, Jomar Canlas, Bernice Camille V. Bauzon,
Justin Ronald Irons, Shylynne Castillo and Maiden Bernaldez
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