Senator Imee Marcos found the P10-billion additional fund requested by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to carry out the rescheduled October 2023 barangay and Sangguiniang Kabataan (SK) elections as an ’outrageous demand".

Marcos told Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III that she also finds Comelec’s request ‘’outlandish’’ because the requested P10-billion additional cost would push up the election expenditure from P8.5 billion to P18.5 billion.

She had said that based on her computation, the poll body would only need about 15 percent additional budget.

The scheduled December 2022 barangay and SK elections was recently reset by Congress to October next year.

Marcos also took Comelec to task for its failure to submit answers to the four questions that she asked the agency to submit durign the Senate Finance Subcommittee ‘’I’’ public hearing on Monday morning, Oct. 17.

As a result, she suspended her subcommittee hearing ‘’until further’’ notice.

‘’Yang ang gusto ng chairperson.. strict (That’s what I like in the performance of a chairperson - strict),’’ Pimentel said.

The four other questions were:

- Performance of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) which continues to be ‘’miserable",

-Update on workers’ compensation, including the controverted tax,

- Smartmatic issues with regard to the largest contract as well as the previous election experience and the perceived stranglehold of Smartmatic in all contracts in the Comelec; and

- Vote-buying in the last 2022 elections and any action by Comelec to end vote-buying.

Comelec officials led by George Irwin Garcia attended by the hearing.

Garcia had said that the additional budget would cover other expenses, including the extended voters’ registration, additional polling precincts, additional honoraria for election workers, and election materials.