BACOLOD City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said the allegations linking the City’s contract with High Data Infra Corp. to the May 12, 2025 elections are false and misleading.
“We strongly refute the baseless claims regarding the City Government’s public-private partnership (PPP) contract with High Data Infra Corporation,” Benitez said.
This was after former mayor Evelio Leonardia, who is now running for congressman against Benitez, allegedly asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the manual counting and manual tallying at the precinct level of votes for local candidates in Bacolod City, before the electronic transmission of election results to the City Board of Canvassers in May elections.
In March 2025, Benitez has signed a 10-year build-transfer-maintain agreement with the High Data Infra Corp. led by its representative Danny Fernandez, a P2.105-billion Bacolod Super City Project.
The P2.105-billion project will be implemented in phases this year. The first phase will focus on e-governance, as it is the most feasible for immediate execution.
It will also include the establishment of a command center infrastructure and the deployment of intelligent street lamp poles equipped with dynamic cameras for traffic monitoring, people monitoring, flood monitoring and HuliCam portable cameras.
Leonardia said this is a clear and significant conflict of interest that compromises the sanctity of the ballot because of the partnership forged by the concerned parties.
Benitez countered that the project was lawfully processed and awarded under the PPP Code through a transparent and compliant process.
“To clarify, SMS Global Technologies Inc. (SMSGT) and its joint venture partner are providing Comelec an Overseas Voting System for use only by overseas Filipinos (OFWs) abroad, and only for the election of national candidates and not to local candidates,” Benitez said.
He said the system cannot operate within the Philippines. The SMSGT and High Data have no access to Comelec data, infrastructure, or systems.
Benitez urged all parties to refrain from spreading misinformation, adding that the City Government remains committed to transparent governance and electoral integrity.
For his part, lawyer Caesar Distrito, spokesman of Benitez and also a candidate for councilor, said if Mayor Benitez will be the one to decide on Leonardia’s request, he will go for manual counting so that the latter can accept the outcome if ever Benitez will win again this 2025 elections, fair and square.
He said Benitez will not even file his objection before the Comelec, and will leave it to them to decide whether to go for manual or automated election.
“However, as I believe that Atty. Leonardia being a lawyer, he understands that Comelec is required to conduct all national and local elections through an Automated Election System (AES), as mandated by Republic Act No. 8436, as amended by Republic Act No. 9369. Under this law, the counting and canvassing of votes must be done electronically, with manual counting permitted only in specific cases,” he added.
Distrito noted that the Supreme Court had also ruled that manual counting of votes may be resorted to only under exceptional circumstances, such as when the Automated Election System fails or is incapable of generating a reliable and accurate result. In Loong v. Commission on Elections, G.R. No. 133676 (1999), the Court upheld the conduct of a manual count solely upon a clear showing of technical failure in the automated process.
“It should be noted that the law and jurisprudence do not provide for a manual count based solely on allegations of conflict of interest or procurement irregularities involving an alleged service provider, unless these result in actual, demonstrable failure or unreliability of the automated system,” Distrito said.
He said a candidate cannot request a manual counting of votes during the May 12, 2025 elections solely on the ground that his opponent awarded a contract to a company related to the Comelec’s service provider.
He said manual counting is permitted only in cases of technical failure or unreliability of the automated system, not on the basis of alleged conflicts of interest or procurement issues.
“His ground of an alleged conflict of interest of Comelec due to being a service provider of SMS Global Technologies, Inc in the Overseas Voting, had already been strongly refuted in the earlier statement made by Mayor Albee Benitez. The city has no contract with SMS Global but with High Data Infra Corp, and even so, they are in the overseas voting and has no connection with the local or national elections,” Distrito said. (MAP)