THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said the printing of official ballots for the May 12 national and local polls is nearly complete.
In an interview, Comelec chief George Garcia reported that they have already printed some 61 million of the official ballots needed for the polls.
“We are now at around 92 percent complete with the ballot printing,” said Garcia.
A total of 72,097,420 total ballots are needed by the Comelec in the May 2025 polls.
But Garcia added that a lot of work is needed for the verification of the ballots.
He said that out of the ballots printed, only 36 million had passed the verification process.
“We must be able to improve our verification process. On the average, we must be able to verify around 1.2 million ballots on a single day,” said Garcia.
The official ballots must pass both the manual checking and the automated counting machines (ACMs).
With ballot printing nearing completion, the poll chief said they are set to shift their personnel from printing operations to the verification of ballots.
“We will use our personnel assigned for printing for the verification of the ballots,” he said, adding they will open more spaces at the National Printing Office (NPO) after all ballots are printed.
“We need to clear more space in the NPO so that we will have room for additional machines and personnel to do the verification,” said Garcia.
BAYAN MUNA
The Comelec also vowed to take action on the claims of red-tagging by the Bayan Muna party-list as provided by their guidelines against discrimination in relation to the May 12 polls.
Garcia said they would quickly act on claims of discrimination targeting Bayan Muna and other party-list organizations running in the elections.
“The public can expect that the Comelec will take action immediately on matters such as claims of discrimination,” said Garcia. “The campaign period can never be a reason for one to be subjected to discrimination.”
Garcia issued the statement after Bayan Muna submitted a letter asking the Comelec to probe the alleged black propaganda perpetrated against several party-list groups and candidates.
Bayan Muna noted that its volunteers and organizers from different parts of the country have documented several unlawful forms of campaign, either by destruction, defamation, vilification, and red-tagging of its lawful campaign materials.
Included in the list of incidents cited by Bayan Muna were their campaign materials in Cubao, Quezon City; Taytay, Rizal; Cotabato City; Iloilo City; and Tacloban City.
“There has to be a concerted effort to pin down perpetrators, especially if there is a strong notion that this red-tagging and defamation campaign is sponsored by someone or something powerful such as the state,” said Bayan Muna.
Last month, the Commission issued Resolution No. 11116, which provides the guidelines on anti-discrimination and fair campaigning for the May 2025 polls.
Among its provisions include the ban on “labeling,” which refers to the act of categorizing, classifying, labeling, branding, associating, naming, and accusing groups and/or organizations as ‘vocal dissenters’ and activists or subversive group sympathizers or terrorists, or belonging to a criminal group/syndicate without evidence, in connection with or in relation to any election-related activity.”
