Commission on Elections chairman George Erwin Garcia said granting the request of former mayor Evelio Leonardia for the manual counting and tallying of votes in Bacolod City would violate the law.
Republic Act No. 9369 that mandates the automated counting of election returns would have to be amended to enable the Comelec to grant Leonardia’s request, Garcia said at a press conference at the provincial Capitol in Bacolod City on Thursday, May 1.
Garcia also said he has not received Leonardia’s letter requesting for a manual count.
Leonardia’s camp said he sent a letter to Garcia on August 25 requesting for the manual counting and manual tallying at the precinct level of votes for local candidates in Bacolod City before electronic transmission of election results is made to the City Board of Canvassers during the May 12 elections.
Leonardia is running for representative of Bacolod against Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez.
In his request for a manual count Leonardia cited the recent award made by Benitez of a P2.1 Billion Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contract to Highdata Infra Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of SMS Global Technologies Inc., for his Super City Project.
SMS Global Technologies Inc. is a service provider of the COMELEC for the 2025 overseas online voting, Leonardia said.
“This is a clear and significant conflict of interest that compromises the sanctity of the ballot because of the partnership forged by the concerned parties”, he said.
Until Republic Act 9369 is amended, the Comelec does not have the power to grant Leonardia’s request, Garcia said.
Garcia also assured that there are sufficient checks in place to ensure the credibility of automated elections.
Random manual audits will also be conducted where contents of a ballot box will be counted manually to see if the results match with that of the Automated Counting Machine, Garcia added.
He also pointed out that the ACMs are now hybridized where watchers of candidates will be able to see all the ballot images dropped from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day.
Benitez said earlier that he had no objection to a manual count but it was a matter for Comelec to decide.
He called Leonardia’s claims regarding the city government’s PPP contract with Highdata Infra Corporation baseless.
“Allegations linking this contract to the May 12, 2025, elections are false and misleading. To clarify, SMS Global Technologies Inc. and its joint venture partner are providing COMELEC an Overseas Voting System for use only by overseas Filipinos, and only for the election of national candidates and not local candidates”, he said.
“We urge all parties to refrain from spreading misinformation”, Benitez added.*