Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 11) – The House Committee on Appropriations has approved the Commission on Elections’ ₱27.3 billion budget under the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP).
The agency originally asked the executive for ₱44 billion, but this was slashed by ₱17.4 billion, Comelec chairperson George Garcia shared during the five-hour long budget deliberation on Monday.
He told the Appropriations panel that the presented ₱27.3 billion budget would only cover the May 2025 midterm elections – ₱794 million of which will be used to implement internet voting for overseas Filipinos.
Garcia explained that by the time the poll body submitted its proposed allocation to the executive, the Supreme Court decided that the postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKEs) from Dec. 2022 to Oct. 2023 was unconstitutional.
“The Supreme Court said that, indeed, the postponement of the Barangay and SK election of December 5, 2022, was declared unconstitutional,” Garcia said.
READ: SC rules law postponing barangay, SK elections unconstitutional, but October polls to go as planned
“However, in view of the operative fact doctrine, we will proceed with the election by October 30. Ang sabi po ng Supreme Court din, ang next election natin [the SC said that our next BSKE election is] not 2026, but 2025.”
Garcia admitted that the slashed budget would pose difficulties in automating the 2025 BSKEs and asked for supplemental funds in the 2025 budget to aid in the conduct of the local polls.
However, he assured the panel that the Comelec was also prepared to conduct the 2025 BSKEs manually.
“There should be a supplemental budget or the most, we are going to conduct the election of 2025 December manually, and the budget will come by next year for the 2025 proposed budget,” Garcia continued.
