The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) is fully prepared to administer the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections or BSKE this year if President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vetoes the bill passed by both houses of Congress postponing the polls.
The ballots are already printed, materials already in warehouses, and only teacher training and deployment are remaining before the elections can proceed, COMELEC Commissioner Rey Bulay said Monday.
Bulay made the disclosure in a live studio interview on DZRH News program The Situation Report on September 14, addressing the question of COMELEC’s readiness on the same night the BARMM parliamentary elections were being conducted.
The commissioner said the COMELEC never stopped preparing for the Barangay and SK polls even as the postponement bill moved through Congress.
“Handa, ready po kami. Kasi hindi naman ho kami tumigil ng preparasyon hanggang ngayon. So ang kulang na lang pong major steps na gagawin namin, training ng teachers which normally you do sa October pa kung November ‘yung election, and deployment. ‘Yun na lang ang kulang. Lahat ng kailangan namin naka-standby sa warehouse,” Bulay said.
Bulay said the President must decide whether to sign or veto the bill this month to give COMELEC enough time for teacher training and deployment, the only two major steps still outstanding.
“Lahat ng kailangan namin naka-standby sa warehouse,” Bulay stressed, confirming the physical election materials are ready to go.
The commissioner said the Barangay and SK polls use a manual ballot, or a fill-in-the-blanks format, rather than the automated system used in national and BARMM elections, with proclamation happening at the barangay level itself rather than through canvassing boards.
Bulay said the manual format makes the elections more sensitive and more personal than automated polls, because results are determined and announced at the community level with no transmission buffer.
The commissioner also flagged the challenge of government subsidies during the campaign period, noting that COMELEC has already warned agencies that programs like TUPAD cannot be used to benefit incumbent barangay officials during the election period.
