MANILA, Philippines -- A compromise between the Commission on Elections and a congressional oversight committee that would pave the way for the automation of the August 11 Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections has hit a snag.

Comelec is already finalizing negotiations with suppliers of automated machines that would be pilot-tested in four of the six ARMM provinces, on the premise that Congress would relax bidding procedures in this instance.

But legislators have not yet done their part to pass a joint resolution that would exempt Comelec from stringent government procurement rules.

Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and chairman of the joint congressional oversight committee on automated elections, said on Monday he had yet to sound out his colleagues on the proposed resolution.

Makati Representative Teodoro Locsin, chairman of the House committee on electoral reforms and co-chair of the oversight committee, is tasked to get majority of the House of Representatives to support the resolution.

It turned out that the proposed joint resolution has not even been drafted yet.

Gordon said he thought that Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Edgardo Angara would draft the joint resolution since they broached the idea at the last hearing on April 24.

But when Enrile arrived at the hearing of the oversight committee on Monday, he said he thought all along that Gordon would do it.

Gordon said he expected to issue the resolution by Monday.

"I will do it but I'm sure I have to consult him (Enrile) because this is going to be very ticklish, because as I pointed out, this is an experiment," said Gordon, who authored the amended automated election law of 2007.

He said automation would have to be implemented now in preparation for the 2010 presidential elections.

"The nice thing about this development is that we are going to be experimenting with several machines. And (having) several machines I think is by itself a safeguard (against cheaating) in the national elections because they can not prepare for so many machines," he said.

At the hearing on Monday, Comelec Chairman Jose Melo reported that they began negotiations with machine suppliers.

Different automated systems will be used in Maguindanao, Lanao Del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan and Basilan. The elections in Sulu and Tawi-tawi will not be automated.

But Melo said they would have to get the provincial governors to agree to implementing automation in their area.

On Friday in the Senate, the chosen machine suppliers will conduct a demonstration before the joint oversight committee.

The proposed joint resolution exempting the Comelec from procurement laws would allow the poll body to still negotiate with the bidders who earlier failed to meet the requirements set under the law.

The Comelec has a budget of P867 million to conduct the ARMM elections. It has a total budget of P4.3 billion for this year.

Gordon said he would convince his colleagues to sign the resolution so as not to give the Comelec another excuse to go back to manual counting.

"Well I hope that they will all agree on this because otherwise, we would have no automated elections again," he said.

He admitted he was still to talk to his colleagues on exempting Comelec from procurement laws for the purpose of automating the ARMM elections in August.

"No, not really. It will all depend on the proclivity of the senators if they really want our country to modernize and go into a situation where there will be less instances of cheating. It's up to them," he said.

"This is really an exercise? When this succeeds, right away even before the ARMM election is over, we are already going to prepare for 2010. And this time it will follow strict procurement procedures," he stressed.