The Supreme Court (SC) was asked yesterday to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from reusing the more than 82,000 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines in the 2016 elections as recommended by the poll body’s advisory council (AC) and the technical evaluation committee (TEC).
In a petition filed by former Biliran Rep. Glenn Chong and the Ang Kapatiran Party, the SC was told that the creation of the AC and the TEC under Republic Act No. 8436 (the Automated Election System (AES) law), violated the provisions of the Constitution.
The petitioners said that Congress, through RA 8436, violated Section 2(1), Article IX-C of the 1987 Constitution that prescribes the powers and functions of the Comelec.
Under Section 2(1), they said that the Comelec “shall enforce and administer all laws and regulations relative to the conduct of an election, plebiscite, initiative, referendum, and recall.”
They pointed out that when the Comelec started sharing its powers with other bodies – whether permanent or ad hoc, the prime task or mandate of Comelec is transgressed and the institutional independence of the poll body is undermined.
“The mere thought alone that the Comelec is under some kind of supra-entities created in the guise of extending assistance to the same is abhorrent,” the petitioners said.
Manila Bulletin
