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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Comelec eyes completion of ballot printing by March

Comelec eyes completion of ballot printing by March

Published Feb 18, 2025 04:51 am

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Tuesday, Feb. 18, that the poll body has so far printed nearly half of the required number of ballots for the May 2025 elections.

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Verifiers of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) carefully inspect printed ballots for the May 12 National and Local Elections during the first day of COMELEC’s Ballot Verification activity, held at the Amoranto Sports Complex in Quezon City on Thursday, February 13, 2025. COMELEC Chairman George Garcia said that their space at the National Printing Office (NPO) is not enough for ballot verification, so they borrowed a venue from the Quezon City Local Government to expedite and maximize the verification process. (Santi San Juan)

"Forty-eight percent na po ng atin pong requirement na 72 million, nasa 38 million na po ang ating naiimprenta na balota (Forty-eight percent of our requirement of 72 million ballots has been met, with 38 million ballots already printed)," he said in an interview on Balitanghali.

"So far so good yan. Hopefully makatapos tayo second week ng March sa printing ng balota. At yung verification naman, sana nga matapos natin lahat-lahat sa April 14 ng taon na ito (So far, so good. Hopefully, we can finish printing the ballots by the second week of March. As for the verification, I hope we can complete everything by April 14 of this year)," he added.

Less than a week ago, Garcia led the commencement of the ballot verification t the Amoranto Stadium in Quezon City. Garcia said that at the National Printing Office (NPO) they have more or less 260 machines and approximately 600 verifiers. Half of them work during the day while the other half work at night for two shifts.

In Quezon City, they have 200 machines. He said that they are aiming to have 250 machines here and around 500 Emergency Job Order (EJO) workers who will also work on two shifts.

After ballots are printed, Garcia explained that these undergo a manual verification process to check the accuracy of their size, color, cut, and secret features. After which it will be machine-verified to know if it's recognized and counted.

According to Garcia, it takes around 7.5 to 80 seconds for a ballot to be verified both manually and through a machine. But this depends on the verifier's expertise.

Cases against candidates

In the same interview, Garcia said that pending cases that have been filed against candidates will not affect their candidacy.

He said this just after a petition for disqualification from seeking public office was filed before the poll body against the Tulfo brothers namely senatorial candidates ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo and Ben Tulfo; as well as ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Jocelyn Tulfo; Quezon City 2nd District Rep. Ralph Wendel Tulfo; and Turismo party-list first nominee Wanda Tulfo-Teo.

"Yun pong paghahain ng disqualification cases, yung pendency ng disqualification cases sa atin, kahit pa nga may inisyal na desisyon laban sa isang kandidato ay wala pong epekto sa mismong kandidato (The filing of disqualification cases, the pending disqualification cases with us, even if there is an initial decision against a candidate, has no effect on the candidate themselves)," he explained.

He also added that the candidate's name will still be included in the ballot and if the case is not resolved, all votes for the candidate will be considered valid.

Garcia said that the decision on the case must be final and executory.

"At magkakaroon lang po ng executory na desisyon kapag ang Comelec En Banc ay nagkaroon ng desisyon at walang restraining order mula sa Korte Suprema (An executory decision will only occur when the Comelec En Banc makes a decision and there is no restraining order from the Supreme Court)," he added.

Related Tags

ballot printing Disqualification case comelec chairman george erwin garcia matalinong boto 2025 Commission on Elections (Comelec)
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