Senate summons local partner of South Korea firm in poll contract

COMELEC – MIRU / MARCH 11, 2024
Poll Chairman George Erwin Garcia and Miru Systems president Chung Jin Bok during the P 18-billion contract signing between Commission on Election and Miru Systems Co. Ltd. for lease of an automated election system to be used in the 2025 national and local midterm elections. The South Korean firm will provide customizable systems and software, transparent and secure ballot printing, and technical support for the leased machines and systems. Miru Systems was the sole bidder for the lease of a Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (Fastrac) to Comelec. INQUIRER PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — A Senate panel on Tuesday ordered the issuance of a subpoena to St. Timothy Construction Corporation — one of the local firms in partnership with South Korea’s Miru Systems.

Miru, along with its local partners, Integrated Computer Systems, St. Timothy Construction Corporation, and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies, was recently awarded the contract for the lease of automatic voting machines for the 2025 polls.

Speaking at the panel on electoral reforms and people’s participation’s inquiry, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III initially suggested the issuance of such an order.

It was later on seconded by Senator Risa Hontiveros and approved by Senator Imee Marcos who presided over the hearing as committee chair.

Before the subpoena was ordered, Pimentel questioned why St. Timothy — a construction firm – is involving itself in election systems.

To this, Ernani Lim, a representative of the Integrated Computer Systems and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies – explained that when the group was formed “each one has its own responsibilities.”

“In the case of St. Timothy, they will be a financial supporter because of the amount that is involved in investing for the project,” said Lim.

This, however, did not sit well with Marcos who admitted that she was “perplexed” by the role of a construction company in the lease of vote counting machines.

“You have admitted na sila ang magdadala ng pera. Ang ibig sabihin ang Miru walang pera?,” Marcos asked, but Lim emphasized that everyone in the consortium “has its own share based on the responsibility given to them.”

(You have admitted that they will bring the money. Does this mean that Miru does not have money?)

For her part, Hontiveros asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) if it is aware that St. Timothy shares its principal office address and corporate officers with an entity “blacklisted” by the Department of Public Works and Highways.

But Comelec chair George Garcia maintained that the agency that Hontiveros was pertaining to did not appear in the documents submitted to them by St. Timothy.

“This company submitted 131 ongoing contracts and likewise [we] verified as to whether these companies had been blacklisted or even suspended by the DPWH,” said Garcia.

“What appeared was only St. Timothy and the other two partners of St. Timothy,” he noted.