US firms elated by VRIS ruling

American companies Unisys, IBM and Polaroid expressed elation over a recent court ruling ordering the Commission on Election (Comelec) to resume negotiations for the implementation of its Voters Registration and Identification System (VRIS).

In a statement, Unisys president Gabriel Leiva said they were delighted at the news that the VRIS project will soon resume after a long impasse.

As systems integrator for the VRIS, Unisys will take charge of creating the system that will facilitate the cleansing and updating of the Comelec’s list of voters to come up with a single computerized database.

"We are both challenged and honored," Leiva added, "to have such a key role in this project which is critical to the sustenance of the Philippine democratic way of life."

Leiva described the VRIS as the "bedrock of the country’s electoral system from which other electoral modernization tasks have to spring from."

He noted that the complementary nature of the VRIS to the automation of the counting of the votes, when fully operational, would strengthen the nation’s process of choosing its leaders.

"These will surely reinforce other nation-building initiatives," he stressed.

The Quezon City Regional Trial Court recently ordered the Comelec to resume negotiations with the Photokina consortium to which the American companies belong. The consortium won the bidding for the P8.5-billion project which the Comelec suspended due to budget constraint.

IBM country manager Wilfrido Tinga, for his part, reasserted the company’s readiness to support the VRIS project. "As a partner in the consortium, we are ready to deploy world-class technology to help modernize the country’s election process."

Colin Hunt, Asia-Pacific general manager for Polaroid, expressed delight that the court has finally confirmed the award of the VRIS project to Photokina.

Polaroid will be responsible for the production of tamper-proof and counterfeit-resistant ID cards for voters to be used in elections.

Hunt said Polaroid continues to support the Comelec, the government and the Filipino people in their quest for an honest election.

"We believe that democracy in the Philippines would significantly benefit from the improvement of the integrity of the electoral process," he said.

Hunt also said that the ruling on the VRIS would definitely "reinforce international business confidence in the Philippine government’s tendering and bidding process." – Junep Ocampo