Leonardia Seeks Manual Count; Benitez Has No Objection

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD CITY – Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo “Albee” Benitez has no objection to former Mayor Evelio Leonardia’s call for the Commission on Elections to conduct manual counting in the May 12, 2025, elections.

Both Leonardia and Benitez are running for the city’s lone congressional district seat.

If Benitez had the final say on Leonardia’s request, he would support manual counting so the former mayor could accept the results if Benitez wins fairly and squarely in the 2025 elections, said Atty. Caesar Distrito, spokesperson for Benitez.

“He (Mayor Benitez) will not even file an objection before the Comelec and will leave the decision to the commission, whether to go manual or automated,” Distrito said in a press statement issued Tuesday.

He noted that the law and jurisprudence do not allow manual counting based solely on allegations of conflict of interest or procurement irregularities involving a service provider unless there is proven technical failure or unreliability of the automated system.

A candidate cannot request manual counting in the May 12, 2025, elections simply because a contract was awarded to a company connected to the Comelec’s service provider, Distrito added.

Manual counting is only allowed in cases of actual system failure, not alleged conflicts or procurement issues, he said.

Distrito said Leonardia’s claim of conflict of interest, citing SMS Global Technologies Inc. as a Comelec service provider for overseas voting, had already been refuted by Mayor Benitez.

The city has no contract with SMS Global but with High Data Infra Corp., and even then, SMS Global is involved only in overseas voting and has no link to the local or national elections, he added.

Earlier, Leonardia sent an urgent request to Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia seeking manual counting and manual tallying of votes for local candidates at the precinct level in Bacolod before electronic transmission to the City Board of Canvassers in the May 12 elections.

Leonardia filed the request in reaction to Mayor Benitez’s award of a PHP2.1 billion Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contract to High Data Infra Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of SMS Global Technologies Inc.

SMS Global, a Comelec service provider for the 2025 overseas online voting, has been questioned by overseas Filipino workers in social media posts for allegedly not correctly reflecting the names of candidates they voted for, 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,” Leonardia said.

High Data Infra Corp., with paid-up capital of less than PHP2 million, was awarded the multibillion-peso deal on Jan. 24 by Benitez.

The PPP contract was ratified by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod on March 5, just 23 days before the election ban began on March 28.

Lawyer Jose Jireh Alimon of the Vaflor Alimon & Cabigon Law Offices, counsel for Leonardia, called the transaction highly questionable.

He said the city will use electronic counting machines on election day, which High Data Infra Corp. and SMS Global Technologies Inc. could potentially access due to their technical expertise and familiarity with the Comelec’s automated system.

He said the request for manual counting and tallying at the precinct level is a safeguard to protect the integrity of the election results in Bacolod.

“After the manual count and manual tally at the precinct level for local candidates, the results can then be electronically transmitted to the City Board of Canvassers after everyone concerned receives their copy of the tally sheets,” he added.

Leonardia also urged Bacolod residents to be vigilant against any attempts to manipulate the electronic counting and transmission of votes to safeguard the sanctity of the ballot in the upcoming local and national elections on May 12.

“I publicly challenge Benitez to support this appeal to the Comelec to implement manual counting in Bacolod,” Leonardia said.

“This way, everything will be transparent and no longer susceptible to doubt and suspicion,” he added.