Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia confirmed on Wednesday, April 24 that United States (US) authorities have filed a money laundering case against former poll chief Andy Bautista.
“I would like to respectfully confirm that based on our communication with attorneys from the US, confirmed that the case is officially filed in a district court in the US,” he said during the Kapihan sa Manila Hotel.
He mentioned that, several weeks ago, there were representatives of the US Department of Justice and the US Department of Homeland Security who came to the country to request an interview with some of the Comelec staff.
“May hiningi pa silang mga dagdag na dokumento and sinabi nila naifile na nila yung mismong kaso sa isang court sa US pero sealed (They asked for additional documents and they said that a case was filed in ac court in US). It was already allowed by the court to be unsealed,” he said.
The documents included procurement papers, including laws on anti-graft, bidding, and other related laws. Garcia said that they also spoke with some directors involved in the procurement and processing of payments during that time.
Garcia said that they will include the filing of the case in their motion for reconsideration (MR) on the Supreme Court’s (SC) ruling on the poll body’s decision to disqualify Smartmatic-TIM Corporation from the public bidding in connection with the 2025 polls.
“Definitely this time because it is out in the open. It’s now public and it’s officially admitted to us by US authorities, we will definitely include that in the event that we will be filing the motion for reconsideration,” he added.
It was in November when Comelec granted the petition to disqualify and disallow Smartmatic to participate in any public bidding process for elections.
In a 17-page resolution, the Comelec En Banc said the decision was in the exercise of its administrative power to decide all matters affecting the election and in pursuit of its constitutional mandate.
Comelec recognized the imminent threat to the strength and integrity of the country’s democratic process in the charges filed against Bautista by the United States (US) government for allegedly receiving bribes in exchange for awarding a contract for election machines to Smartmatic
However, the SC ruled that Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion when it disqualified Smartmatic.
Comelec remained firm that the disqualification of Smartmatic was a “significant step” taken with a view of safeguarding the integrity and credibility of the country’s elections
In including this in the MR that they will file, Garcia stressed that there’s basis in their decision to disqualify Smartmatic.
“So yung gusto po namin patunayan when we issued the resolution on the disqualification of the company. Hindi po yun basta inisip, hinulaan lang. May basis po kami. Yun po yung basis namin (What we want to prove is that when we issued the resolution on the disqualification of the company. We did not just conjure it or guessed it. We have a basis. That was our basis),” he explained.
He also mentioned that there was no need to let Smartmatic to participate in the public bidding to disqualify the firm.
“We have the power to select sino pwede pumasok sa (who can enter the bidding) sapagkat may information kami na nakuha (because we have received information) on the issue of the integrity and credibility of what happened 2016. That was our basis. At that time, we cannot reveal fully the information in our answer because of the mutual legal assistance treaty that we have and we don’t want to compromise the investigation of the US authorities,” he said.
In disqualifying Smartmatic, the poll body said in its resolution last year that in the exercise of its plenary powers, it may disqualify a potential bidder from participating in its procurement processes.
— Dhel Nazario
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Credit belongs to: www.mb.com.ph
