POLL preparations of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) have been delayed after the suspension last week of the printing of official ballots to be used in the May national, local and Bangsamoro elections.
The Comelec last week stopped the printing of the official ballots after the Supreme Court (SC) issued temporary restraining orders against the implementation of its decisions to disqualify and declare several aspirants as nuisance candidates.
Elections chairman George Garcia told radio dzBB in an interview that aside from the rescheduling of the mock elections, which was supposed to be held last January 18, the poll body also needs to reset the training of public school teachers who will serve in the elections.
“We will test all the vote counting machines in the mock elections. We will also use actual teachers who have election duties. So, we need to reprint the test ballots (first) and we will also need to move the teachers’ training,” Garcia said in Filipino.
Garcia said teachers who will have election elections duties on Election Day will have an honoraria of P2,000, adding that they will also be given a 10-day service incentive leave, instead of five days.
“At the same time, ipinanukala ng inyong lingkod yung pagtataas din ng service incentive leave. Kapag nagsilbi ka kasi mayroon limang araw na service incentive leave na ibibigay sa iyo. Pinropose po natin na 10 araw na ito at ito ay inaprubahan mismo ng Comelec en banc din (At the same time, I proposed that the teachers’ service incentive leaves be extended to 10 days, instead of five. Service incentive leaves are given to teachers who serve on election day. My proposal was approved by the Comelec en banc),” he added.
Garcia has earlier said that aside from the printing of official ballots, the Comelec will also change the Candidates Database, the Election Management System (EMS), the Automated Counting Machine (ACM), and the Consolidation and Canvassing System (CCS).
It will also need to regenerate 1,667 ballot face templates and all their serialization, as well as change the numbering of the candidates.
The Comelec has also cancelled and shall reschedule the Trusted Build of the Online Voting and Counting System (OVCS).
Garcia said the printing of the official ballots will resume on Wednesday,
He said the Comelec will use all the printing machines available at the National Printing Office (NPO) so they can meet their original April 14 deadline.
Since the poll body started the printing of ballots last January 6, around six million ballots costing P132 million have been printed. These would be destroyed, according to the Comelec chief, so they cannot be used for unauthorized purposes.
The printed ballots include Final Testing and Sealing (FTS) ballots, Local Absentee Voting (LAV) ballots, Overseas Voting (OV) ballots, Official Ballots (OB) for Bangsamoro and Caraga, BARMM Parliamentary Election ballots, and mock election ballots.
The SC, in an en banc session last week, stopped the Comelec canceling the certificates of candidacy (COCs) of five candidates, including Subair Guinthum Mustapha, who is eyeing a Senate seat; Charles Savellano who is running for congressman in the 1st district of Ilocos Sur; Chit Bulatao Balintay who is running for governor of Zambales; former Rep. Edgar Erice who is gunning for representative of Caloocan City’s 2nd district; and Florendo de Ramos Ritualo Jr. who is eyeing a seat in the Sangguniang Panglungsod of the 1st district of San Juan City.
Last Friday, the High Court issued three new TROs and directed the poll body to include the names of Marie Grace David, who is running for vice mayor of Limay, Bataan; Mary Dominique Oñate, who was declared a nuisance candidate for mayor of Palompon, Leyte; and Aldrin Sta. Ana’, who is running for mayor of Bocaue, Bulacan.
Veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal yesterday said the Comelec should retain the names of aspirants whom it had disqualified in the ballots pending the final resolution of the SC of their cases.
Macalintal said a candidate who is nominated by a political party and is disqualified “for any cause” could still be substituted by another party member with the same surname.
“Section 60 of Comelec Resolution No. 11045 issued on August 28, 2024 provides that after November 15, 2024, a candidate of a registered political party who is disqualified for any cause may be substituted by another member of the same political party provided that the substitute shares the same surname of the original candidate,” Macalintal said, pointing out that the resolution also provides that the substitution may be made up to mid-day of Election Day.
He added that to immediately delete the names of disqualified aspirants from the ballot will violate the right of the political party to substitute its disqualified candidate until Election Day and will render naught and meaningless the purpose of having a substitute with the same surname of the original candidate.
“By including on the ballots all the names of other disqualified candidates with pending appeals in the SC, it will give an assurance that the printing of the official ballots will no longer be delayed and no further wastage of Comelec funds, even if the SC issues another set of TROs in other pending appeals of disqualified candidates,” the veteran election lawyer said.
NUISANCE CANDIDATES
Dr. Arvin Serrano, national coordinator of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), yesterday backed the proposal of the Comelec to criminalize nuisance candidacy so that the filing of COCs will not be abused.
In a separate interview with radio dzBB, Serrano said lawmakers must come up with clear guidelines to identify who can or cannot run for public office.
He said some individuals with the same surname as other more popular candidates file their COCs simply to confuse voters.
He said some of these individuals do so in the hope of getting paid by monied candidates who would want them to withdraw their candidacies. He did not elaborate.
Serrano said identifying nuisance candidates from the very start will be beneficial to those who are sincere in seeking to be elected. – With Ashzel Hachero