Comelec to Senate: Act with ‘utmost dispatch’ on bill to defer ARMM polls

MANILA, Philippines—To prevent “any unnecessary expenses,” the Commission on Elections has urged the Senate to act with “utmost dispatch” on a bill, seeking to postpone the August Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections.

While it recognized that the postponement of the ARMM elections was a sovereign act of Congress, the Comelec said the ongoing discussion on the bill has also “gravely” affected its preparation for the ARMM polls.

In its position paper submitted to the Senate committees on local government and constitutional amendments on Tuesday, the Comelec said it has been rigorously preparing for the ARMM polls as early as December 2010 but was forced to slowdown the procurement process of the voting machines to prevent any unnecessary expense should the Senate eventually decide to concur to postpone the August elections.

“With this in mind, we withheld the signing of contracts with SMARTMATIC-TIM, reset the filing of the certificates of candidacies and the commencement of the campaign period, and held back on what would otherwise be a full-blown preparation,” it said.

“In fact, had the contract been signed, our expenses to date would have already reached at least P300 million,” it said.

“This uncertainly already gravely affected our preparation for the ARMM elections and if it remains unresolved in the next few days, we will have no other option but to revert to manual elections considering that the time left to us will make any attempt to automate the ARMM elections very risky,” it added.

The conduct of an automated 2011 ARMM elections would cost the government a total P1.5 billion but the Comelec said, only P480 million had been released so far by the Department of Budget and Management.

The Comelec said the balance of more than P1 billion would have to be taken from the agency’s savings, an amount which the agency said could be used in much-needed modernization and infrastructure projects.

“In view of the above, we find it imperative that the issue of the postponement of the ARMM elections be settled with utmost dispatch,” the Comelec added.