Comelec bares window for plebiscite this year; 2025 'next to impossible' 

(MANILA BULLETIN)

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has ruled out the conduct of a plebiscite for the entirety of 2025, and even the final quarter of 2024 for that matter. 

In a briefing before the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms on Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 23, Comelec Executive Director Teopisto Elnas told the congressmen just how tight the poll body's schedule is this year and next year. 

Before this, Makabayan solon Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel asked Comelec whether or not they have enough personnel to carry out the referendum this 2024. 

Manuel was apparently referring to the plebiscite in connection with the People’s Initiative (PI), the purpose of which is to amend the 1987 Constitution. 

Kabataan Party-list, which is opposing the PI movement along with the rest of Makabayan, had earlier exposed the supposed plan of PI proponents to hold the plebiscite by June 2024. 

Elnas say that the "window" for the conduct of such referendum is between August to September this year. 

He told the House panel that holding a plebiscite in 2025, the year of the next mid-term elections, was "next to impossible". 

“Kapag sa dulo na, last quarter, fourth quarter ng 2024 mangyayari yan [referendum] hingi kami ng, sana po hindi na tayo magkakaroon ng plebesito dito sa month ng October, kasi October start na ng filing ng certificates of candidacy (COC) hanggang sa November and December," Elnas said. 

(If that referendum is being planned for the fourth quarter of 2024, our request is for us not to have it in October, because October marks the start of the filing of COCs, up to November and December.) 

"And so much so, pagpasok po ng January, February, March,vApril, kasi ito na yung bulk ng preparation natin. Actually mag-start tayo by August, September, October, November, start na tayo on the technical side ng preparation natin," added the Comelec official. 

(During January, February, March, April, we will do the bulk of our preparation. By August, September, October, November, we will start the technical side of our preparation.) 

Elnas reminded the panel that there are not one, but two scheduled polls in 2025, the other one being the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE). He said this would entail a new round of voter registration. 

The PI, which is fueled by a signature campaign, is one of the three modes by which Charter change or Cha-cha may be carried out.