00:00In the midst of the increase of candidates for the 2025 national and local elections, the Commission on Elections announced that there will be a change in their contract for the use of the Philippines' fast-track system provider in Halalan.
00:16One of the partners of Miru, the St. Timothy Construction Corporation, left the contract of Comelec and Miru Systems Company Ltd.
00:26This is the local partner who provided financial support to Miru in the Philippines.
00:31The reason for their withdrawal is conflict of interest.
00:35St. Timothy has a connection with some candidates who will run as a nominee of a party list and also in the local elections.
00:43That's why Comelec forced them to choose if they will stop running in Halalan or leave the contract.
01:05Ensuring a clean, orderly and honest election, we will be compelled to disqualify certain candidates because we honestly believe that that will be what we call as conflict of interest.
01:18Comelec said that they did this to ensure that the people of the country will have no doubt in voting for Halalan.
01:28It seems unacceptable that our partner, provider Paadda, will run for Halalan because the integrity of our Halalan will be compromised.
01:41Because in our opinion, it's also a favor to them. If they lose, it's okay. But what if they win?
01:49Then what will be said is that maybe we will delete Halalan. We don't want the people to have that kind of doubt.
01:56Comelec insisted that this will have no effect on the election, especially to the machines that will be used by Miru.
02:03Because St. Timothy's contract is only financial support and not included in the construction of automated machines.
02:11This is also the assurance of Miru Systems Company Ltd.
02:14They also thanked St. Timothy for being honest and said that they still have confidence that a contract will be signed with Comelec
02:23because there are two local partners in the Philippines, Integrated Computer Systems and Centerpoint Solutions.
02:30Meanwhile, according to Comelec, in their report, in the three days of filing of the COC, they noticed that the candidates were partially absent.
02:39Because from the party list to the member of Congress and the local position,
02:44almost half of the votes were from the COC and CONA compared to the remaining votes in the 2025 elections.
02:52Most of the votes were for the Senator, out of 12 seats, 39 were filed by the COC.
02:59In total, in the three days, 9,120 votes were from the COC and CONA out of 18,280 votes in the elections.
03:11It is expected that this will increase in the coming days because it is possible that the candidates will still have feelings for the past few days.
03:20Luisa Erispe for Pambansang TV in Bagong, Philippines.
