Namfrel to Comelec: Lease VCMs, don’t purchase them

Instead of buying the vote counting machines (VCMs) used in the 2016 elections, the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) believes the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is better off leasing the machines for the midterm polls next year.

Namfrel Secretary General Eric Alvia said by leasing the VCMs, Comelec won’t have to pay for their maintenance and storage.

“If the AES (automated election system) technology choice was for the re-use of the VCM, we would prefer a lease agreement,” Alvia said in an interview.

Last December, the commission en banc ruled to exercise the option-to-purchase clause in its lease contract with Smartmatic for 97,517 VCMs for R2.1 billion to be re-used in the 2019 elections.

“The commission studied what is the best plan... And it was decided that financially or economically speaking, the best solution is OTP. The OTP is about R2.1 billion so you still have a leeway in your budget for others that you might need,” Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez had said.

“The R2.1 billion that you are going to spend for the OTP was the only way to make the budget given by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) fit,” he added.

Comelec was only given R8.1 billion for the automation of the 2019 polls.

Before the 2013 vote, the commission also used the option-to-purchase clause to acquire all 81,896 Precinct Count Optical Scan machines leased for the 2010 elections, for R1.8 billion.