Charges eyed in Philippines over Smartmatic case

MANILA, Philippines —  The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is eyeing separate charges in the Philippines against those involved in the alleged bribery and money laundering case filed in the United States related to the 2016 Philippine elections.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia said they will not hesitate to file a case if their ongoing investigation confirms the allegations made in the US indictment.

“The case in America, money laundering, means that US laws were violated… But what about our laws?” Garcia said in Filipino during an interview with “Storycon” on One News yesterday.

“They mentioned tax fraud, alleged rigging in bidding and jacking of prices of the machines procured by Comelec,” he added. “We need to investigate it, otherwise the current Comelec may be held accountable.”

The indictment in the US, Garcia said, already included relevant information that can serve as evidence of possible violations of Philippine laws.

“That’s why we created an 11-man panel to investigate the documents mentioned in the indictment… We are verifying if (the allegations) are true or just lies,” he added.

The Comelec chief did not provide a timeline on the ongoing investigation of the panel.

Last week, the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of former Comelec chairman Andres Bautista and three former and current executives of elections technology provider Smartmatic.

Charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and one count of substantive violation of the law were Smartmatic founder and president Roger Piñate and former Smartmatic vice president for hardware development Jorge Miguel Vasquez.

Bautista, Piñate, Vasquez and Elie Moreno – former vice president of the Smartmatic’s global services and general manager of Smartmatic Philippines – were also each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.

Information from the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where the federal case was filed, confirmed that Piñate and Vasquez have already surrendered and been released on bond. Bautista and Moreno have yet to appear