Comelec: We have no budget for manual recount of votes

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Sunday said that the automated election law needs to be amended or a new law has to be passed to make way for the call of a manual recount of Eleksyon 2025 votes, and provide a budget for such.

Comelec chairman George Garcia explained that the intention of Republic Act No. 9369 or the Automated Election Law is to have “full” automated polls, and not one with manual counting. 

However, he said that the law mandates a random manual audit which would check ballots from select clustered precincts.  

“Wala po kasi tayong budget para diyan sa mga pagbibilang na ganyan kung talaga bang ‘yan ay pine-prescribe. Bakit? Simula nu'ng 2010 na nag-automated election tayo, ay wala po tayong mga ganyang klaseng pagbilang,” Garcia said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

(We don't have a budget for manual counting, if that's really prescribed under the law. Since we started conducting automated elections in 2010, we don’t have this kind of counting.)

“Kung pagbibigyan natin sila, sino po magbibilang? Saan bibilangin? Magkano ang budget? Saan kukuhain ang budget? Anong proseso? Anong procedure ng pagbilang?”

(If we grant their plea, then who will count? Where will the counting be? How much is the budget? Where will the budget be gotten from? What is the process? What is the procedure for the counting?)

The Comelec earlier said that an election protest is the only way to trigger a manual recount of votes, following the call of detained senatorial candidate and religious leader Apollo Quiboloy for a manual recount.

Since the Comelec already proclaimed on Saturday the 12 winning senators for the 2025 national and local elections, Garcia also said that the poll body will lose jurisdiction if there will be a manual recount as the Senate Electoral Tribunal now holds control.

With this, he said that a new law is needed or the Automated Election Law has to be amended as it may already be outdated.

“Tama itong pagkakataon na ganito, itong 2025 elections, upang makapaghabi tayo ng mga batas o kaya baguhin na natin ang Automated Election Law sapagkat 2007 pa po ‘yan. Napakatagal na, ang dami nang pagbabago…sa teknolohiya. Maaaring hindi na po ‘yan updated,” Garcia said.

(The 2025 election is a good opportunity for us to create new laws or amend the Automated Election Law because it’s been here for a long time. There have been many changes in technology. It may not be updated already.)

“Ako ay nag-a-agree kung kakailanganin ng pagbabago o overhaul ng batas. Bakit nga ba hindi? Pero sa kasalukuyan, tali ang kamay ng Comelec. Hindi kami makakakilos nang hindi binabago ang batas sapagkat tagapagpatupad lang kami ng ating mga umiiral na batas,” he added.

(I would agree if there will be a change or overhaul of the law. But currently, the Comelec's hands are tied. We cannot act without changing the law because we are only the enforcers of our existing laws.)

Last Wednesday, May 14, the Comelec officially started the random manual audit (RMA) of ballots from over 700 randomly selected clustered precincts and one online voting post for Eleksyon 2025.

At least 60 auditing teams from the Department of Education (DepEd) would check the performance of the automated counting machines (ACMs) and examine the ballots from 726  randomly-selected clustered precincts to validate their accuracy during the law-mandated RMA.

The teams comprised teachers who did not serve as electoral board members for the May 12 elections. —KG, GMA Integrated News

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