THE camp of Vice President Leni Robredo yesterday accused the Commission on Elections (Comelec) of violating the law when it started the printing of the official ballots for the May 9 national elections in “secret,” prohibiting the opposition presidential candidate’s watchers and representatives from observing the process.
“The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has done an unforgivable disservice to the entire Filipino electorate for ignoring and disregarding the law that will insure transparency in our electoral processes when, in all apparent secrecy, it started the printing of the official ballots for the May 9, 2022 elections without notice to the political parties and candidates who, under the law, are entitled to send their watchers or observers during the printing of the ballots and other election paraphernalia,” said Romulo Macalintal, Robredo’s election lawyer.
Macalintal said he received a letter dated March 8 from the poll body’s executive director advising him “that Commissioner Marlon S. Casquejo has disallowed in the meantime the request to allow the watchers and/or representatives of Vice President Robredo to observe the printing of the official ballots as there are critical areas within the premises of the National Printing Office (NPO) that even personnel of the Automated Election System (AES) provider and the NPO are not allowed to access due to security reason, and that the Comelec is at the peak of printing, verifying, and hauling the Final Testing and Sealing (FTS) and Official Ballots.”
“Any additional activity other than the above mentioned may cause delay in the preparations and timeline,” the same letter said.
Casquejo, in a press conference at the NPO, said, “We will discuss that during our en banc meeting, these comments of Macalintal as well his suggestions on the random test of the ballots.”
Casquejo also said about 73.7 percent of the official ballots have been printed, or about 49.7 million of 67.4 million.
“We are on time. We are very lucky to have four printers provided by the NPO. It’s now full blast at 100 percent,” he added.
Comelec has said it was targeting to complete printing by April 21, at the latest.
Among all regions, only Metro Manila has yet to start printing 7.3 million ballots it needs.
“Almost all regions are already 100 percent printed, except for the National Capital Region,” said Casquejo.
Also having completed printing are all manual ballots — for local absentee voting, overseas voting, and in the 63 barangays in North Cotabato that opted to join the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who is running for vice president, said he would will skip a campaign sortie in Quirino province today to meet with members of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Elections to find out the veracity of reports that more than 66 percent of the ballots for the May polls have been printed without observers.
Stakeholders have questioned the Comelec’s apparent lack of transparency of in the printing of ballots and configuration of secure digital cards to be used in May elections, unlike in previous elections.
The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, information technology experts, and election watchdogs voiced their concern during last week’s hearing of the Senate committee on electoral reforms, saying they have been not allowed inside the National Printing Office where the ballots were printed and the Comelec warehouse in Sta. Rosa, Laguna where the SD cards have been kept.
Macalintal said the ruling which was rendered by only one member of the Comelec “is clearly arbitrary and so whimsical and a clear violation of the parties and candidates’ right to due process as they were denied a lawful right without due notice and hearing.”
“Since Commissioner Casquejo’s act is a complete deviation from what the law mandates, the decision should have the concurrence of the majority of the members of the Comelec.
More so, if we consider the fact that, under Section 188 of the OEC, the committee on printing of these documents is under the ‘general supervision and control’ of the Comelec which means that any deviation from what is required by law should have the concurrence of the majority of the Comelec,” he said.
While he does not know what Casquejo meant when he said “critical areas” in the NPO, Macalintal said it was the first time that he has heard of such since the poll body started printing automated ballots from 2010 to the 2019 automated elections.
“With more reason that we should have been advised of such ‘critical areas’ and how it would affect the security in the printing of official ballots and other election documents,” he said. — With Gerard Naval and Raymond Africa
