Restore P14-B budget cut, poll body urges Congress

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia speaks in an ambush interview on Friday, August 30, 2024. —Photo by Dianne Sampang/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has requested Congress to restore more than P14 billion of its proposed budget for 2025, saying such a huge cut may compromise the three elections to be conducted next year.

The Comelec requested a total budget of P49.5 billion for next year, but the Department of Budget and Management only recommended P35.19 billion on the 2025 National Expenditure Program currently being deliberated in Congress.

According to Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia, of the P14 billion slashed from the poll body, P3 billion was for the conduct of the national and local elections (NLE) and the first Bangsamoro Parliament election on May 12, 2025, and the other P11 billion was supposed to be allocated for the Dec. 1, 2025, barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE).

In a radio interview on Saturday, Garcia was most concerned for the BSKE as the budget cut would forgo the additional P2,000 in the honoraria of teachers working as part of the electoral boards, and they would also lose their support staff.

“The Comelec fought for the additional P2,000 for the honoraria of our teachers for the NLE, because we would be using new voting machines. But unfortunately, this would not be possible for the BSKE, which is more difficult to conduct as the counting is done manually. Their work may take them to work from midnight until the next day,” the poll chief said.

The support staff, on the other hand, are important in elections as they are the personnel tasked to collate the ballots cast by vulnerable population voters, such as the elderly, persons with disability and pregnant women at Emergency Accessible Polling Places.

Education defunded

The budget cut would also affect the voter’s education drive and training for teachers for the NLE.

“The Comelec needs to conduct an extensive voter’s education campaign across the country from November to January to inform the voting public on how to use the new voting machines, as well as to show them their new features,” Garcia said.

Other items such as forms and other supplies, as well as the printing of ballots, may also get imperiled.

Garcia said they would do with what Congress would provide for them and assured the public that there would be no slowdown in the voting process just because of the budget omissions, but he was wary that lines would be longer on the election days next year.