Of Filipinos?
previous offers, Comelec did not accept the last offer made by Smartmatic- TIM… As in any other kind of contract… an option to purchase agreed to be valid and shall expire on a certain date, i. e., 31 December 2010, shall cease to be effective unless extended prior to the expiration of such option through the ‘ mutual’ and ‘ consensual’ agreement of both parties. It is common acceptation in law and jurisprudence that a ‘ contract must bind both contracting parties, its validity or compliance cannot be left to the will of one of them… The contractual relation between Comelec and Smartmatic- TIM… is deemed automatically terminated upon expiration of the option on 31 December 2010. When the option to purchase expired…, there is nothing more to extend thereafter because the existing ‘ offer’ that served as basis of the option to purchase had already ceased to exist, particularly when Comelec did not accept the unilateral and voluntary extension made by SmartmaticTIM... Consequently, the subsequent extensions have no leg to stand on… as the original ‘ offer’… was already non- existent. Consequently, the succeeding offers made by SmartmaticTIM… are regarded as ‘ new’ offers that need to comply with existing laws… before it may be accepted legally.”
On the other hand, the Comelec’s Advisory Council ( CAC) recommended not to exercise the option to purchase the 2010 PCOS machines. But Comelec still insisted. ( Read the threepart series last year in this column entitled “The Advisory Council: What is its real value to Comelec”?) Further, the CAC offered ICTO’s 300,000 digital certificates for use by the Board of Election Inspectors and Board of Canvassers in the 2013 elections so that the problem related to digital signing in 2010 could be resolved. Again, Comelec didn’t bother to listen!
Anyhow, Comelec was able to get the nod of the Supreme Court through its ruling that said: “Comelec is confronted with time and budget constraints…, the exercise of the option, and the execution of the of sale, are the more prudent choices available to the COMELEC for a successful 2013 automated elections. The alleged defects in the subject goods have been determined and may be corrected as in fact fixes and enhancements had been undertaken by Smartmatic- TIM.” Hence, gone with the Comelec’s in- house- developed CCS and so with the FIT4E.
The preparations for the 2013 elections moved on in 2012 but the fixes never happened due to Smartmatic’s refusal to refurbish the PCOS machines. To make the situation worse, there was a legal battle between Smartmatic and Dominion Voting System. The former sued the latter for the software error in 2010. That only shows that the AES used in 2010 was really defective!