SC Reverses COMELEC Resolution Disqualifying Smartmatic from Participating in Public Bidding for Elections
April 17, 2024
The Supreme Court En Banc yesterday unanimously granted the Petition for Certiorari filed by petitioners Smartmatic TIM Corporation and Smartmatic Philippines, Inc. (collectively, Smartmatic) and reversed the November 29, 2023 Resolution of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) En Banc, which disqualified Smartmatic from participating in any public bidding for elections.
However, the Court recognized that to require the COMELEC to conduct another round of public bidding would seriously disrupt its preparations for the 2025 National and Local Elections (NLE) and potentially jeopardize the very conduct of the NLE. Accordingly, the Court ruled that its Decision will be prospective in application.
Citing its constitutional mandate to enforce and administer all laws and regulations relative to the conduct of an election, plebiscite, initiative, referendum, and recall under Section 2(1), Article IX-C, Constitution, as well as information the COMELEC received from the Department of Justice of the United States of America regarding an ongoing criminal investigation into former COMELEC Chairperson Juan Andres D. Bautista in relation to procurement activities for the 2016 NLE, the COMELEC En Banc rendered its assailed Resolution disqualifying Smartmatic from participating in any public bidding for elections.
The COMELEC Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) proceeded to conduct public bidding and the contract for the 2025 AES was awarded to a joint venture composed of Miru Systems Co. Ltd., Integrated Computer Systems, St. Timothy Construction Corporation, and Centerpoint Solution Technologies, Inc. (Miru Systems). In view of the COMELEC En Banc’s Resolution disqualifying Smartmatic, the SBAC did not permit Smartmatic or its related entities to participate in the public bidding for the 2025 AES.
The Court En Banc reversed and set aside the Resolution of the COMELEC En Banc, holding that “[i]n choosing to disregard the procedures prescribed by the GPRA and its IRR and disqualifying Smartmatic before it had submitted any bid, without any reference to the applicable eligibility requirements and non-discretionary pass/fail criteria prescribed by the Special Bids and Awards Committee, the COMELEC En Banc implemented a discretionary pre-qualification regime antithetical to the very essence of the GPRA—a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction.”
Citing considerations of equity, justice, and practicality, however, as well as the doctrine of operative fact, the Court ruled that its finding of grave abuse of discretion on the part of the COMELEC En Banc is not sufficient basis to nullify the public bidding conducted by the SBAC, or the COMELEC’s award of the contract for the 2025 AES to Miru Systems.
The Supreme Court Public Information Office will upload a copy of G.R. No. 270564 (Smartmatic TIM Corporation and Smartmatic Philippines, Inc. v. Commission on Elections En Banc, Eliseo Mijares Rio, Jr., Augusto Cadeliña Lagman, Franklin Fayloga Ysaac, and Leonardo Olivera Odoño) once it receives the same from the Office of the Clerk of Court En Banc. The Decision was penned by Associate Justice Jose Midas P. Marquez, with Associate Justice Antonio T. Kho, Jr. filing a Separate Concurring Opinion. (Courtesy of the Supreme Court Public Information Office)