THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has started the printing of official ballots to be used in the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) polls slated for October 23 despite various bills filed in the Senate and House of Representatives (HOR) for its further postponement.
In a kick-off ceremony held at the National Printing Office (NPO) on Wednesday, Comelec Chairman Andres D. Bautista started the process of ballot printing, starting with approximately 11,000 ballots bound for Batanes. A total of 77.2 million official ballots are set to see print in the course of 4 weeks, and the final ballot is expected to be printed by October 9, less than a month before the actual polls.
The NPO estimates 100,000 official ballots will be printed from August 10 to 12; 1 million to 1.5 million daily from August 13 to 31; and 2 million per day from September 1 to October 9. At P3 for each 4.5-by-8-inch ballot, the cost of ballot printing totals P231.6 million.
However, at least a fraction of this total cost could go to waste should lawmakers decide to postpone local polls anew. To recall, the barangay and SK elections were originally scheduled on October 31, 2016, in accordance with the law. Citing the need to ensure that candidates backed by drug lords and drug money will not hold office, President Duterte favored the postponement of the elections. After a bill authored by Sen. Juan Edgardo M. Angara and signed by Duterte passed into law, the postponement to October 23 this year was officially ordered on October 18 last year.
On Monday the all-members caucus of the HOR agreed to postpone the polls again, this time to May of 2018. They also allowed incumbent local officials to occupy their posts until then. The Senate is expected to hold their own caucus in the coming weeks to come up with their decision on the matter, but Comelec cannot delay the printing any longer.
“As a matter of fact, the start of ballot printing was originally slated for July 20 or July 24. It is already August 9, so we cannot delay any further, or else we will run out of preparation time. Our printing committee recommended that we already begin the preparations,” Bautista said.
Even the move to start printing Batanes-bound ballots when the norm was to print the ARMM-bound ballots first is a reaction to possible local polls postponement in Mindanao.
“Typically, ballots from the Mindanao area are printed first. However, in view of the possibility of the postponement of the barangay elections in Mindanao, due to conditions of violence and terrorism in the area, the initial run of ballots will start with Batanes,” said James Jimenez, spokesman to the Comelec.
The Comelec is conducting a public hearing in Davao City on August 15 regarding this matter, “for the purpose of giving all interested parties equal opportunity to be heard on the matter of whether to postpone the barangay and SK elections in Mindanao in view of the imposition of martial law and the impossibility of holding free, credible and honest elections”.
Bautista explained that whatever the decision for both polls turns out to be, the Comelec is prepared.
“We are neutral on the issue [of postponement]. We are simply getting on with the preparations, to ensure efficiency should the polls push through. But, of course, we want the final decision to arrive soon,” Bautista said.
He added all ballots shall be stored at the NPO should both or either one of the elections be postponed, to still be used when the next elections take place. If such scenario happens, “there will be no security issues on the ballots, and they may still be used, either by simply using ballots with the wrong date, or slightly modifying them to reflect the correct date,” assured Bautista and former Comelec commissioner and now head of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting Rene Sarmiento, who was also present during the ballot-printing kick-off ceremonies.