Comelec ready for BOL plebiscite

FILE: BANGSAMORO ORGANIC LAW. President Rodrigo R. Duterte poses for a photo with the legislators and negotiators in the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), as well as top officials from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police during the presentation of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to the MILF at Malacañan Palace on August 6, 2018. (King Rodriguez/Presidential Photo)

MANILA — While it is in the middle of preparations for the May 2019 midterm polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) assured its readiness to conduct a plebiscite for the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said holding a plebiscite is not as tedious as regular elections since it will just be using the manual system of voting and will only involve some 3 million voters.

“In terms of printing ballots, we can finish one million of them in a day or two,” he said in an interview on Monday.

Jimenez noted that the packing and shipping of ballots and other paraphernalia for the plebiscite would take about two weeks.

“Even with a very tight timetable, the Comelec can actually revert to manual. It is not a very difficult thing to do a manual system since it already has a standard procedure,” the poll body official added.

In line with this, Jimenez said they need to reactivate their Bangsamoro Committee to handle preparations for the plebiscite.

The committee would be headed by Commissioner Al Parreño.

He added that it is likely they will be crafting questions to be asked during the plebiscite.

“It is possible that there will be one question or several versions of one question. It is also possible that some places will have one question, while some places will have more than one,” Jimenez said.

Under the BOL, the poll body will be conducting a plebiscite in areas that will be included in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region to determine whether or not the people would want their area to be included in the region.

Last July 26, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the BOL, or Republic Act 11054, which will establish a new Bangsamoro political entity to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.