Biz Buzz: Savings for Comelec, PH

The midterm elections are still a year away and yet political talk is already becoming increasingly prominent in corporate boardrooms.

Among the issues being hotly debated is the controversy around the awarding of a contract to supply the government with new voting machines that will be instrumental in the exercise of Filipinos’ right to vote in 2025.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) awarded in February the supply contract for vote counting machines (VCMs) to be used in the 2025 elections to the joint venture led by South Korean firm Miru Systems.

READ: Comelec awards vote counting machine contract to Miru Systems

However, the Supreme Court later ruled that it was wrong for Comelec to disqualify current supplier Smartmatic from the bidding.

Legal wrangling will more likely continue for some time. But in the meantime, Comelec can consider the offer put forward by Smartmatic to upgrade or refurbish the 97,000 VCMs that are already owned by the government.

Smartmatic reminded Comelec in a letter sent earlier this week that those machines are still under warranty and are more than capable of doing their job in 2025.

Smartmatic is also committed under the warranty contract to provide parts, labor, technical support, and maintenance to Comelec until next year.

The use of the machines should save Comelec billions of pesos since they can just fire up machines that they already have.

As Smartmatic spokesperson and former Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert Lim said in a statement: “After the 2022 elections, every single one of these machines was tested, checked, and certified to be in working condition. This means Comelec could deploy all 97,000 vote counting machines to serve Filipinos in the 2025 elections.”

With the government hard-pressed to conserve resources, Comelec may do well to give the proposal at least an extensive review. —Tina Arceo-Dumlao

New route to Australia

Australian flag carrier Qantas is targeting to launch direct flights from Manila to Brisbane by Oct. 28, which will complement its existing Manila-Sydney route. The new route is still subject to government approval.

“The Philippines is a very important part of our Asia network so we’re pleased to be growing with a new route to Australia,” Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace said.

“We know large numbers of our customers have been traveling between Manila and Brisbane via our existing Sydney service, which gives us great confidence about how this route will perform when flights start,” he added.

According to a 2021 report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there are nearly 28,000 Filipinos in Brisbane—most of which are Australian citizens. —Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

APL.DE.AP wants to ‘electrify’ PH

“Bebot” hitmaker Allan Pineda, popularly known as APL.DE.AP of the Black Eyed Peas, wants to leave another mark in the world by promoting sustainable mobility.

In a forum hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the multi-Grammy winning artist shared his vision of promoting electric vehicles in the country amid the growing calls for decarbonization across all industries, including transportation.

Recently, ADB and Pineda’s foundation teamed up for technical capacity building in the electric vehicle sector.

“This is to try to research the best way to successfully electrify the Philippines,” he said.

“We want to save some of the jeepneys in the Philippines [through] retrofitting, turning [them] to electric vehicles,” he added. —Tyrone Jasper C. Piad