Comelec to resume ballot printing for 2025 polls on Wednesday

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Sunday it will start printing again official ballots for the 2025 national and local elections on Wednesday, January 22, after the operation was halted in response to a Supreme Court (SC) order.

Comelec chairman George Garcia said the poll body now aims to use all the machines available at the National Printing Office considering the delays in printing ballots, which was originally supposed to be finished by April 14.

To recall, six million printed ballots, with a printing cost of around P132 million, were put to waste following the issuance of a temporary restraining order by SC against the disqualification of several local bets in the May 12 midterm polls.

“Sa Miyerkoles na darating, tayo po ay magsisimula na muli, back to zero, sa pag-iimprenta ng mga balota,” Garcia said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

(This coming Wednesday, we will start printing ballots again. It’s back to zero.)

“Meron kasing mga apat pang makina sa NPO. Plano na nating gamitin ang lahat-lahat.ng makina ng NPO at ‘yung dalawang bagong makina na dinala naman ng Miru Systems, so para hopefully, ay makagawa ng paraan na ma-doble man lang ang production output sa bawat araw,” he added.

(There are still four more machines at NPO, so we plan to use all their machines, as well as the two new ones brought by Miru Systems. Hopefully, we can make a way to double up our production output per day.)

Garcia admitted that printing ballots for the upcoming elections is not easy due to its complexities. He also said that the Comelec did not anticipate the additional costs brought about by the need to reprint the ballots, but he explained that they may realign budget from an existing line item.

Despite this, the poll chairman appealed to the public not to blame the SC for what happened, stressing that the high court should always be respected and followed.

“Gusto ko pong ipaalala sa lahat, ‘wag po ninyong sisihin ang Korte Suprema kasi alam niyo, ito po’y parte ng isang proseso. Talaga pong ‘yan ay expected na may mga ganyan,” Garcia said.

(I want to remind everyone not to blame the Supreme Court because this is part of a process. It's really expected that these things will happen.)

He said that the Comelec will have to resume printing over 70 million new ballots in time for the May elections. The poll body started printing the ballots on January 6 this year.

“Ngayon, hindi na tayo masyadong on track dahil sa dalawang linggong nawala sa atin. Medyo sumablay na tayo doon sa timeline natin. Pero ‘wag pong mag-alala…Mahahabol natin at may mga contingency measure naman tayo,” he added.

(We’re no longer on track right now because of the two-week delay. We will slightly miss our timeline, but don't worry as we can catch up on this and we have contingency measures in place.)

The Comelec on Friday began transporting the six million wasted ballots to a warehouse in Laguna's Sta. Rosa City for proper disposal.

The poll body opted for paper melting after the National Archives of the Philippines prohibited the use of micro-shredding for recycling. —KG, GMA Integrated News