MANILA — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) reiterated on Thursday that they will reuse official ballots that have already been printed in case the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) will be postponed.
”’Yung balota na may petsa na nakalagay. Ano ang gagawin kung hindi gagamitin ngayong 2017? Then we have two options: One is to use as is at magpapasa na lang ng Comelec Resolution kung saan sinasabi na pwede gamitin balota sa araw na ito kung kelan man sya ipagpapaliban (On the ballots that have dates in them, there is something that we can do with those things. Then, we have two options: One is to use as is and the Comelec will pass a resolution stating that the ballots can be used on the new date of the polls),” Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said.
“Pangalawa, i-sticker ‘yung date, pero syempre pag ginawa natin ‘yun may karagdagang gastos. But siguro ‘yan pagpasyahan ng Comelec en banc pagdating ng panahon (Second, we will put stickers on the date but if we do that, it will incur additional expenses. The Comelec en banc is yet to decide on that),” he added.
As to securing the election paraphernalia, Bautista said they will be stored at the National Printing Office (NPO) in case the BSKE is postponed.
He added there is an area at the NPO that is very secure where they can keep the documents.
“Dito sa NPO meron namang lugar na very secure at may mga guwardya ang Comelec (Areas in the NPO are very secure and the Comelec has hired guards),” Bautista added.
On Wednesday, the Comelec reported that it has printed a total of 27,950,855 or 46.94 percent out of the 59,548,410 total number of ballots that are needed to be printed for the October 23 elections.
It also spent some PHP500 million in connection with the preparation for the forthcoming polls.
Meanwhile, both Houses of Congress have passed their respective bills on the postponement of the Barangay and SK polls to May 2018.
They expect to tackle both versions of the bill before a bicameral conference for consolidation.