By Arlie Calalo

TOP election officials said yesterday they were confident the 2010 polls would be fully automated following Congress? approval of an P11.3-billion supplemental budget for that purpose.

In a press conference, Commission on Elections Chairman Jose Melo said the poll body was determined to pursue automation nationwide, and would no longer be swayed by those still calling for a partial or hybrid system.

?We are ready! We are in for full automation nationwide,? Melo told reporters.

Full automation is being resisted by the likes of former Comelec Chairman Christian Monsod, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, and Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia who say it is no guarantee against fraud.

But Melo and his commissioners seemed determined to carry out the law that mandates full automation.

?Comments such as those are already too late in the day... We have to spend this amount based on our desire to fully automate the elections,? Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer said.

Melo said they could now go on with the bidding process for the lease of Precinct Count Optical Scan machines once President Arroyo signed the bill into law.

He also said they expected the terms of reference to be approved today and published next week.

?We want to give the service providers the opportunity to comment on the [terms of reference]... then we will begin with the bidding process,? he said.

He rejected the possibility that a failed bidding would force the Comelec to go back to the manual system.

?The prospective bidders are very eager and are coming forward. We can say the competition is tight. I do not foresee... a failed bidding,? Melo said.

Based on a list provided by the Comelec, all 11 prospective bidders for the PCOS system are foreign companies.

These include Sequioa, Avante, ES/S, Hart and Scantron from the United States; Smartmatic from Venezuela; DRS from the United Kingdom; Bharat from India; DVS Korea of South Korea; Gilat Solution from Israel and Indra System from Spain.

?These companies have demonstrated capabilities and good track records of successfully holding actual elections abroad,? Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said.

House Speaker Prospero Nograles said approval of the supplemental budget for poll automation would end speculations that President Arroyo is out to extend her term through Charter change.

?We have been cursing the old system for its many obvious flaws. Now is the time for us all to close ranks and make poll automation work,? Nograles said.

He said poll automation was not about politics.

?It?s about making elections as truthful, clean and honest as possible so that popular democracy will serve its ends,? he said.

?Every Filipino has a stake in this,? Nograles said after the bill passed in the House on third reading with a vote of 193 in favor. Rep. Eduardo Nonato Joson of Nueva Ecija voted against the bill while Rep. Michael John Duavit of Rizal abstained.

The Senate approved its counterpart measure on Wednesday, setting the stage for the President to sign the bill into law.

But some senators expressed concern that the Comelec might not be able to act fast enough.

Senator Francis Escudero said the Comelec was under time constraints to acquire and deploy 80,000 electronic voting machines, but still did not have the terms of reference or the design of the automated system to guide suppliers bidding for the project.

?If we have not even tested the machine in one room, why do we insist on implementing it blindly throughout the country?? he said.

Senator Mar Roxas said the Comelec should be given the leeway to decide whether to pursue automation nationwide or to exclude certain areas if it became too cumbersome or risky.

?If full automation is not possible, then let us pilot-test in certain provinces first. It?s better to do it slowly but surely than rush on and spend left and right even if we end up with nothing,? Roxas said. With Fel V. Maragay and Macon Ramos-Araneta