Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez and Evelio Leonardia (l-r)*
Mayor Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez will not object to former mayor Evelio Leonardia’s request for manual counting of the May 12 votes in Bacolod City and will leave it to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to decide, his spokesman said on Tuesday.
Leonardia and Benitez are both running for representative of the Lone District of Bacolod.
Benitez will not file an objection to the former mayor’s request so he can accept the outcome of the elections if he does not win again, his spokesman Caesar Distrito said.
Leonardia lost to Benitez in the 2022 mayoral race.
“Mayor Albee will not even file his objection before the Comelec, and will leave it to them to decide whether to go for manual or automated election”, Distrito said.
Leonardia sent an urgent request to Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia for the manual counting and tallying at the precinct level of the May 12 votes for local candidates in Bacolod City, before the electronic transmission of the results is made to the City Board of Canvassers.
The move was in reaction to 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., which is the service provider of the COMELEC in the 2025 overseas online voting, Leonardia’s camp reported.
Conflict of interest was cited.
Distrito said while Benitez has no objection to the manual counting request, he believes that Leonardia being a lawyer understands that COMELEC is required to conduct all national and local elections through an Automated Election System (AES), as mandated by Republic Act No. 8436, as amended by Republic Act No. 9369.
“Under this law, the counting and canvassing of votes must be done electronically, with manual counting permitted only in specific cases,” he said.
The Supreme Court had also ruled that manual counting of votes may be resorted to only under exceptional circumstances, such as when the Automated Election System fails or is incapable of generating a reliable and accurate result, Distrito said.
In Loong v. Commission on Elections, G.R. No. 133676 (1999), the Court upheld the conduct of a manual count solely upon a clear showing of technical failure in the automated process, he said.
“It should be noted that the law and jurisprudence do not provide for a manual count based solely on allegations of conflict of interest or procurement irregularities involving an alleged service provider, unless these result in actual, demonstrable failure or unreliability of the automated system,” he said.
A candidate cannot request a manual counting of votes during the May 12 elections solely on the ground that his opponent awarded a contract to a company related to the COMELEC’s service provider, Distrito said.
“Manual counting is permitted only in cases of technical failure or unreliability of the automated system, not on the basis of alleged conflicts of interest or procurement issues,” he added.
Leonardis’s ground of an alleged conflict of interest of COMELEC due to being a service provider of SMS Global Technologies Inc. has been strongly refuted by Benitez, Distrito said.
Benitez, in a statement, said he strongly refutes the baseless claims regarding the city government’s PPP contract with Highdata Infra Corporation.
The project was lawfully processed and awarded under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Code through a transparent and compliant process, he said.
Allegations linking this contract to the May 12 elections are false and misleading, the mayor said.
“To clarify, SMS Global Technologies Inc. (SMSGT) and its joint venture partner are providing COMELEC an Overseas Voting System for use only by Overseas Filipinos (OFWs) abroad, and only for the election of national candidates and not to local candidates,” he said.
“The system cannot operate within the Philippines. SMSGT and Highdata have no access to COMELEC data, infrastructure, or systems” he said.
Benitez urged all parties to refrain from spreading misinformation.
“The city government remains committed to transparent governance and electoral integrity,” he added.*