The ballot face templates for the May 2022 polls are now out.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) released the ballot face templates in their website Tuesday, Jan. 25.
Based on the templates, there are 10 aspirants for president, nine for vice president, 64 for senator, and 177 for party-list on the ballot for local and overseas absentee voting.
The 10 presidential bets are Ernie Abella, Leody de Guzman, Isko Moreno Domagoso, Norberto Gonzales, Ping Lacson, Faisal Mangondato, Bongbong Marcos, Jose Montemayor, Manny Pacquiao and Leni Robredo.
The nine candidates for vice president on the other hand, are the following: Lito Atienza, Walden Bello, Rizalito David, Sara Duterte, Manny Lopez, Willie Ong, Kiko Pangilinan, Carlos Serapio, and Vicente Tito Sotto.
Among the senatorial aspirants are Jojo Binay, Alan Peter Cayetano, Neri Colmenares, Leila de Lima, Chel Diokno, Chiz Escudero, Win Gatchalian, Dick Gordon, Risa Hontiveros, Antonio Trillanes IV, Raffy Tulfo, Joel Villanueva, Mark Villar, and Migz Zubiri.
For party-list: Ako OFW, Magdalo, PBA, Butil, Gabriela, Diwa, BTS, Act Teachers, TUCP, CIBAC to mentiin a few.
The ballot face templates were released days after the poll body started printing the official ballots at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City.
In an online press briefing, Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez explained why some disqualified political aspirants who secured temporary restraining order (TROs) from the Supreme Court (SC) were not included in the ballot.
"We looked into the effect of the TRO on the ballot face. The decision was then made last Sunday to go ahead with the printing. This was the decision of the Comelec en banc: to go ahead with the printing," he said.
"When the TROs came out, the ballots were already prepared. There was really nothing left to do but to just go ahead and print the ballots," Jimenez added.
"The ballots were essentially marked with serial numbers. So, again, the only thing left to do at that point was to print," he said.
Among those able to secure TRO were vice presidential aspirant Wilson Amad and senatorial hopeful Norman Marquez.
Jimenez asked those who feel aggrieved to avail of legal remedies available.
Ballot printing started Jan. 20 with the manual ballots for Local Absentee Voting (LAV), followed by the manual ballots for overseas voting, and the automated election system ballot for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
The Comelec is targeting to finish the printing of all official ballots on April 21.
The poll body is set to print more than 67 million ballots for the May 2022 elections.