Comelec officials face raps for ‘serious dishonesty and gross neglect of duty’
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Tue, 21 May 2019 11:25:02 +0000
POLL watchdogs filed a complaint against Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials for “serious dishonesty and gross neglect of duty.”
In their complaint affidavit, Manuel Galvez, Mata sa Balota president; Nelson Celson, Automated Election System Watch spokesman; and Diego Magpantay, Citizens’ Crime Watch president, alleged that Comelec Executive Director Jose Tolentino Jr., and Comelec Director James Arthur Jimenez and Comelec Director Teopisto Elnas Jr. failed to implement key automation law provisions.
Other respondents are former Comelec chairman Juan Andres Donato Bautista and a John Doe, an unidentified operator and Smartmatic Total Information Management.
“The groups said Tolentino is administratively liable for at least gross neglect of duty since he is the overall hands-on micromanager of the Comelec Smartmatic preparations for the 13 May 2019 national and local elections,” the complaint read.
“Likewise liable for at least gross neglect of duty is Director James Arthur B Jimenez for being a purveyor of fake news deodorizing the Comelec-Smartmatic stench instead of simply telling the truth to the people,” the complaint added.
The groups argued that Comelec, for the past 22 years, has failed to hold public consultations on the implementing rules and regulations of the Automated Election System Law.
The groups also claimed that Comelec violated the Government Procurement Reform when it “gave Smartmatic a monopoly in 2019.”
“No bidding was done for the 2013, 2016, 2019 elections,” they said.
The complaint also stemmed from the mishaps and discrepancies that marred the May 13 midterm polls.
They said the Comelec violated the automation law when it failed to create a continuity plan or contingency measures to ensure the continuous operation of the automated election system, provided for by Smartmatic.
The Comelec reported that around 961 vote-counting machines malfunctioned and 1,665 SD cards were corrupted.
For over seven hours, the poll body’s transparency server’s file transfer manager also stopped transmitting election results to political parties, media organizations and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) at the start of the vote count, raising concerns of fraud.
The PPCRV confirmed the previous pronouncement by Comelec that the delayed transmission was due to a “bottleneck.”
The groups noted in their complaint that “the latest electoral disaster, which mainstream media downplay as a ‘glitch,’ was perhaps the worst Philippine election history in terms of machine malfunctions that appear intentional-pretending-to-be-accidental.”
They also said they would file an impeachment complaint against the Comelec chairman and commissioners once the new Congress convenes, as the Ombudsman cannot prosecute Comelec Chairman Sheriff Abas and the current six commissioners.
Galvez said they have secured endorsements from lawmakers at the House of Representatives to impeach the Comelec officials.
The faith-based Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) urged the poll body to consider overhauling its procurement procedures and looking into better systems, following the irregularities from last week’s elections.
Jimenez, when asked for a reaction regarding the complaint filed against him, said “It is their right to do that.” CATHERINE A. MODESTO
The post Comelec officials face raps for ‘serious dishonesty and gross neglect of duty’ appeared first on The Manila Times Online.