MANILA, Philippines – Commission on Elections Chairman George Garcia plans to file a case against detractors alleging that a Comelec official accepted a bribe to favor a poll tech provider.
In a press conference on Wednesday, July 17, Garcia said they are compiling all statements related to what they called a “demolition job” and are waiting for results from the National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) own probe, especially as falsified documents are involved in the issue.
“Kaya hindi ako nagbabanggit ng pangalan [kasi] hindi rin naman sila nagbabanggit ng pangalan e… hintayin na lang ‘yung kasong ifa-file,” Garcia said.
(I’m not mentioning any names because they are also not naming anyone…. Let’s just wait for the case to be filed.)
Last week, SAGIP Representative Rodante Marcoleta insinuated that a Comelec official received bribe money to favor Miru in bidding for the poll body’s procurement of new election machines.
While Marcoleta did not name anyone, Garcia already went forward in an attempt to minimize public scrutiny.
“Malisyoso po kasi ‘yung pagkakasabi, ‘Isang opisyal ng Comelec,’ (They said it maliciously, ‘One Comelec official’)” Garcia said.
“Bawat isang commissioner ang puwedeng pagbintangan, bawat isang direktor puwedeng isama, bawat isang division chief, opisyal, puwedeng isama…. Ayaw talagang sabihin kasi buong institusyon ang pakay,” he added.
(Each commissioner can be blamed for it, each director can be dragged in, every division chief, official can be included…. They really did not name anyone because they were going after the whole institution.)”
In his press conference last week, Marcoleta claimed 49 offshore bank accounts worth $15.2 million in Singapore, China and Hong Kong, the Caribbean, and North America can be linked back to the unnamed Comelec official. He claimed that around $1.2 million or over P120 million were deposits from Korean bank accounts from June 2023 and March 2024.
However, Marcoleta admitted that they have yet to verify all of these claims.
“Wala naman ako kahit isa na foreign account, wala naman ako kahit isang property sa abroad (I don’t have even one foreign account, I don’t have property abroad),” Garcia said.
Four of six local bank accounts linked to the alleged bribery scheme have since been proven non-existent. “Matatawa ka na lang sa mga account numbers na mali-mali (You’d just laugh at the wrong account numbers given),” Garcia said.
At the heart of the controversy is Miru, the government’s new elections software provider for 2025.
Election watchdogs and lawmakers have raised concerns about the tech firm’s reputation overseas, but Miru said the allegations are not true.
The Comelec has disqualified long-time elections technology provider Smartmatic from participating in all future elections in the Philippines, hence a new partner for Comelec. However, the Supreme Court recently ruled that the poll body was wrong when it banned Smartmatic.
The High Court has now ordered the poll body and Miru to comment on the petition challenging the validity of their P17-9 billion deal and Garcia has alluded that this may be what’s driving the attacks against Comelec.
“May kaso ang Comelec sa Korte Suprema ngayon at ang kaso niyan ay patungkol sa pinasok naming kontrata. Lahat ng bahid na maibabato sa Comelec patungkol sa kontrata, sa kumpanya kung saan nakipagsundo ang Comelec, ay mga bahid na pwedeng maka-impluwensya sa Korte Suprema,” Garcia said.
(Comelec currently has a case with the Supreme Court and that case is about the contract we forged. Everything they can criticize or thrown against Comelec about the contract, the company we made a deal with, are things that can influence the Supreme Court.)
On Wednesday, the Comelec commissioners, regional directors, provincial election supervisors, election officers, department division chiefs, and employee union representatives were in full force to show their support for Garcia.
In their statements, they said they viewed the allegations as a “systematic attack on the credibility of the institution ahead of the May 2025 national, local, and BARMM elections.”
“These attacks aim to undermine our efforts to safeguard the electoral process,” they said in a solidarity statement. “We remain committed to strengthening the public’s trust in the integrity of the elections, fulfilling our constitutional mandate to ensure free, orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible elections.” – Rappler.com
