Comelec wants ‘25 polls providers to ‘work well together’

AHEAD of the May 2025 national and local polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said it is looking at having a seamless working relationship among its three service providers.

In an interview, Comelec chairman George Garcia said they are looking at establishing guidelines on the different responsibilities and mandates of their service providers for the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC), Secure Electronic Transmission Services (SETS), and Online Voting and Counting System (OVCS).

“We want to meet them, hold discussions, and draft guidelines to prevent the blame game, and clearly establish their roles and responsibilities,” said Garcia.

“Our providers for the three components must thread the same path while, at the same time, work under the guidance of the Commission,” he said.

The poll chief said establishing such guidelines will help ensure the success of the May 2025 elections.

“We want them to work well together so that the May 2025 elections will be conducted properly,” said Garcia.

To recall, the FASTrAC project was bagged by the Joint Venture of Miru Systems Co Ltd, Integrated Computer Systems, St. Timothy Construction Corporation, and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies, Inc.

On the other hand, the Joint Venture of Ione Resources Inc. and Ardent Networks Inc. won the public bidding for the SETS project.

As for the OVCS project, the contract was won by the Joint Venture of SMS Global Technologies, Inc. and Sequent Tech Inc.

The three projects are the primary components of the automated May 2025 national and local elections.

Meanwhile, Garcia said that the Comelec will require all candidates to submit hard and soft copies of their Statements of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCEs) starting next year’s elections.

In a memorandum, Garcia said the proposal to institute the online publication of the SOCEs may be done in tandem with the electronic submission of SOCEs.

“This (online publication) measure may form part of the e-SOCE project, or the electronic submission of SOCE, of the Commission,” he said, adding that the online submission of SOCEs has already been approved by the Commission en banc.

“The guidelines are