(COMELEC) Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said that they “did not choose Smartmatic” to provide the automated system for the 2022 National and Local elections. “They joined the competitive bidding. It’s beyond our control kung sino mananalo (who will win). It will be the lowest calculated bid,” said Casquejo. Casquejo said that policies on public bidding were followed. “We conducted a post qualification, and may observers naman tayo (and there were observers). We just followed what the GPBB (Government Procurement Policy Board) will give us,” he said. The Comelec has awarded to Smartmatic “the contract for the Procurement of Automated Election System (AES) Software for the Election Management System (EMS), Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) and Consolidation and Canvassing System (CCS) to be used in the 2022 National and Local Elections.”