Leonardia petitions Comelec for manual vote count over SMS conflict

Former Bacolod mayor Evelio 'Bing' Leonardia has filed a petition with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to allow manual vote counting for the city during the May 12 elections.

Leonardia's request, submitted on April 25, is based on conflict-of-interest concerns involving SMS Global Technologies Incorporated, which provides the overseas online voting system.

Corporate documents reveal that SMS owns Highdata Infra Corporation, a firm involved in a P2.1-billion public-private partnership (PPP) deal with Bacolod's city government for e-governance systems and a centralized command center.

Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez dismissed Leonardia’s claims as false and misleading on April 29, stating that SMS Global Technologies is not connected to local polls and has no access to Comelec data or infrastructure.

Leonardia's legal counsel Jose Jireh Alimon warned that this arrangement poses a significant conflict of interest and could compromise election integrity in Bacolod, while also planning to file a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas regarding the P2.1-billion project.