MANILA, 14 January 2004 — The Supreme Court yesterday scrapped part of the much vaunted modernization program of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) so that counting of votes in the May national elections will be done manually.

The ruling effectively voids a 1.3-billion-peso Comelec contract with the consortium which supplied the automatic counting machines (ACMs) that would have been used to canvass the results of the May polls.

Although the High Court did not specify that votes be counted manually, the mere fact that the vote counting machines supplied by the Mega Pacific consortium were outlawed meant a return to the old system of counting which took weeks and even months.

The Comelec had earlier said the use of the ACMs would mean that results of the elections would be known hours after the polls closed on election day.

Manual counting of votes would make counting of overseas votes more complicated as more personnel would be required for the special boards of election inspectors for overseas absentee voters.

Catherine Maceda, Head of Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) also said diplomatic personnel and Filipino votunteers abroad had already been trained to use the machines.

“It would be more complicated,” Maceda said of manual counting. “You have to remember that this is the first time that our people in the embassies and consulates will be doing this. That’s why we expect a lot of problems.”

Maceda said manual counting would require creation of more special boards of reception and custody group and of election inspectors. “For instance, the 90,000 registered voters in Hong Kong will require 110 special boards (instead of just 22 for computerized elections),” she said.

Supreme Court spokesman Ismael Khan said the decision was based on technicalities in the contract only.

“The bottom line of the decision is that the Comelec did not abide by the law and public policy in connection with public biddings so the contract was nullified,” Khan said.

Khan clarified that the high tribunal did not say how the poll body should conduct the May 10 elections. “The court is not saying manual (counting). It will all depend on the Comelec,” Khan said.

“What the court is saying is that the deal is null and void,” Khan said.

Nine Supreme Court justices voted to void the agreement, including Associate Justice Artemio Panganiban, who penned the decision.

Khan said Associate Justices Adolf Azcuna, Dante Tinga, and Renato Corona gave dissenting opinions while Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., and Associate Justices Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, and Jose Vitug gave separate opinions.

Manila newspapers said a number of petitioners had asked the court to void the agreement between the Comelec and the Mega Pacific eSolultions consortium, which supplied vote counting machines and software, citing alleged irregularities.

The high court also ordered the Office of the Ombudsman to determine if government officials could be charged for entering into the agreement with Mega Pacific, Khan said.

Manila newspapers added that the court ordered the Solicitor General to find a way to recover the estimated P800 million the government had initially paid the company for the multi-billion-peso-deal.

Khan said the parties involved could file a motion for reconsideration within 15 days after receiving a copy of the decision.

Earlier yesterday, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Malaca?ang would respect the Supreme Court decision. He said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the poll body to prepare to return to the manual procedure.

Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos refused to comment on the decision, saying he had not received a copy.

But on Monday, Abalos assured the public that elections would go on as scheduled regardless of the high court decision.

A Comelec spokesman had earlier warned that a return to manual vote counting could delay the elections.