Voting 6-1, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday decided to accept the 1.1 million rolls of thermal paper donated by Smartmatic International to be used as voter receipts. The poll body said it has also opted to accept the two million marking pens donated by the Netherlands-based company. The pens will be used by voters to mark their ballots. “We discussed in our en banc meeting the offer of Smartmatic to donate marking pens and thermal paper. The law department made a recommendation that we would not be violating a law if we accept (the donations),” Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista told reporters.
Bautista said the law department also noted that Section 6 of the General Appropriations Act allows donations if the need is “emergency in nature.” “These thermal paper are very important because that will allow us to comply with the ruling of the Supreme Court to print the voter receipts,” he said. According to Bautista, the Comelec will be able to save P49 million from the donation of thermal paper of Smartmatic.
But for Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, the donation might violate the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. “All the commissioners are lawyers and have their own interpretation. I just want to emphasize that there are Commission on Audit requirements that have to be met. We need to report to COA,” she said in an interview. Guanzon added that with the donation, the Comelec had to cancel the public bidding for thermal paper.
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