Comelec: P5-B cut in 2024 proposed budget to delay procurement of counting machines

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it has yet to procure automatic counting machines (ACMs) for the 2025 polls after its proposed budget for 2024 was slashed by P5 billion, George Garcia, the poll body's chairman, said Monday.

Garcia said Comelec initially requested P27.9 billion for preparations for the 2025 polls but it has been reduced by the Department of Budget and Management to P22.9 billion.

“We have P22.9 billion for the preparation for the conduct of the 2025 polls [under the proposed 2024 budget], but the budget for leasing the counting machines depends on the results of the bidding. Hopefully, there will be enough funds left so we can include internet voting for the overseas Filipinos,” Garcia said during the deliberations on the Comelec’s proposed 2024 budget before the House appropriations panel.

“Hindi pa po kami nagpo-procurement because the budget presented to us by the OP (Office of the President) really contained much less than we proposed to them,” he added.

He said the reduced budget will not be enough for testing the ACMs and delivering them to 110,000 precincts across the country.

“Hindi rin po puede mawala iyong testing of the ballot and the delivery of the ACMs. If you’ve noticed, the highest expense for the Comelec is logistics, because everything has to arrive in the precinct,” he said.

The Comelec chief also warned about the possibility of congestion in voting precincts without the additional logistics.

“We can’t render overtime under the proposed 2024 budget. Instead of having 800 [voters] per precincts, we will have 1,000 per precinct," he said.

Aside from internet voting, other budget items that got zero funding under the Comelec’s proposed P27 billion budget for 2024 are the voters' education program, construction of its main office building as well as construction of an integrated field office building.

“We can find solutions for the board of election inspectors and other election paraphernalia, but for the budget for preparatory national automated 2025 elections, mukhang kulang po kami,” Garcia said.

Garcia also said that the Comelec’s proposed P27 billion budget for 2024 also does not include allocation for the conduct of the 2025 barangay and youth polls as ordered by the Supreme Court, given that the court's decision came out after the budget call on the agencies. —LDF, GMA Integrated News