The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is now studying what action should be taken against the partner of the country’s information technology (IT) service provider Miru Systems that has pulled out of the joint venture and may have placed the integrity of the upcoming midterm elections in jeopardy.

In a pressconference, Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia announced that following the third day of filing of certificates of candidacy (CoCs), Saint Timothy Construction Corporation, which was supposed to provide financing to the joint venture, withdrew from its partnership with Miru, leaving the South Korean electronic election system development company and another partner in the joint venture.

“(We have taken) action and referred this to our (legal) department, where (our lawyers) will (look into) what (should be done) and at the same time to study what are the obligations with our remaining partners,” Garcia disclosed.

The Comelec chair likewise explained that Saint Timothy withdrew from the partnership because some of its owners will be running in next year’s polls as conveyed to the Comelec en banc.

Garcia spelled out that the Comelec will not allow the integrity of the elections to be questioned because one of the contracting partners or the owners will run in the national and local elections.

The Comelec has given Saint Timothy two choices—either it withdraws from the joint venture or the Comelec would be compelled to disqualify the company’s candidates due to a conflict of interest.

Meanwhile, the Comelec’s remaining partners in the IT project has committed that they will still fulfill their commitments even as yesterday, October 3, they have already delivered 50 percent of the vote counting machines and all of the peripherals and with all servers established in their respective data centers.

As a final word, the Comelec chief urged the public not to worry about the pullout of one of its partners because they are requiring the remaining joint venture partners to ensure that the interests of the nation, the commission and the people are properly protected.