Comelec to resume ballot printing on Monday ‘at all costs’

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Sunday that it is ready to resume the printing of the official ballots for the 2025 national and local elections by Monday, January 27, after getting hounded by a three-week delay.

Comelec chairman George Garcia said the poll body has already written to the Supreme Court, informing them that the resumption of the ballot printing will push through tomorrow, despite several other petitions still pending before the high court.

“At all costs, kinakailangan tayo ay makapag-imprenta ng balota by tomorrow. At therefore, kahit na may mga kaso pa sa ating Kaatas-taasang Hukuman, ay magtutuloy-tuloy tayo sa ating pag-iimprenta,” Garcia said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

(At all costs, we must be able to start printing the ballots by tomorrow. Even if there are cases still pending before the Supreme Court, we will continue with our printing.)

“Aware ang Comelec na may mga pending na petisyon at maaaring nagdagdagan pa nga ‘yang mga petisyon na nai-file sapagkat siguro dahil na-impress ‘yung iba dahil nakakuha ‘yung iba ng mga TRO. Pero sa amin po, hangga't walang additional TRO, kami po’y magtutuloy sa pag-imprenta ng mga balota. Handa na kami by tomorrow,” he added.

(The Comelec is aware that there are still pending petitions and these may still increase as others might have become impressed that some got TROs. But for us, we will continue printing ballots as long as there are no additional TROs. We are ready by tomorrow.)

Six million printed ballots, amounting to around P132 million, were earlier 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.

The ballot printing was supposed to resume last week but it was pushed back further following the withdrawal of senatorial aspirant Francis Leo Marcos.

With this, the Comelec set a target of producing 1.5 million ballots daily as it resumes the ballot printing on Monday.

Before printing was postponed due to changes necessitated by the temporary restraining orders issued by the Supreme Court and other developments, the poll body was aiming to print one million ballots daily. —RF, GMA Integrated News