Village execs who won’t help fund polls face raps

Contribute or face charges.

This was the warning of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to village officials who will refuse to allocate P10,000 for the conduct of the barangay polls next month.

Comelec’s Resolution No. 9739 requires each barangay government to set aside as much as P10,000 from their annual budget to defray the cost of holding the elections, saying the previously allotted budget of P1.17 billion is “insufficient.”

“If they will not help us, let me stress that it is in our resolution that if they do not give P10,000 from the barangays, it is an election offense,”  Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes said in an interview.

Brillantes explained that an election offense carries penalties ranging from imprisonment for one to six years, denial of the right to vote, and disqualification from public office.

The Comelec earlier said the coming elections would require a budget of at least P3.45 billion, but that the General Appropriations Act of 2013 allotted only P1.17 billion for the Oct. 28 balloting.

The resolution noted that the P1.17 billion was not enough “to ensure that the elections are honest, orderly, peaceful and credible.”

Brillantes said the poll body was hoping that local officials would not hesitate to give the required amount since the money would be used not for the Comelec’s own benefit.

“We will use the money for our teachers, who will serve as Board of Election Tellers,” Brillantes said. “I think it is their (local officials’) obligation to help us in funding this election.”