Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The Senate Committee on Finance approved on Thursday (September 10) the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) budget for 2016.
Comelec officials said that they will work on increasing the number of overseas Filipino voters, as the group can be a game changer during the 2016 presidential elections.
Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III noted that in 2013, the Comelec’s budget was more than P105 million, but the voter turnout was only 16 percent for overseas absentee voting (OAV).
Commissioner Arthur Lim said there are currently 1.2 million registered overseas voters. He hopes to increase it by the end of October to 1.5 million.
Lim explained that there are political and employment constraints, as well as voter apathy. But he said that once candidates declare, Comelec plans to invite them to come out with a platform of governance that will benefit overseas Filipino workers, which they will post in embassies abroad to help create a higher voter turnout.
Comelec also asked the committee to approve an additional P87 million in funding for OAV which they say will go to the “Akyat-Barko” — a project for seafarers in places like Japan and Portugal. Instead of leaving their vessels, field registration officers will instead go to them and help them register.
Sen. Loren Legarda, chair of the Finance Committee, suggested that Comelec should hold debates for local, vice presidential and senatorial candidates for next year’s elections, in addition to the usual presidential debates. Starting February, the Comelec is looking to hold three presidential debates — one in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, respectively.
Although it is only a Comelec initiative, Pimentel said that any candidate can still opt to not appear. But he agreed that it is a good start to focus on issues and not personalities.
Comelec originally proposed a P20.3 billion budget, but the Department of Budget and Management decreased it to P15.65 billion.
“I think Comelec is prepared because they are getting new machines and new systems. Ang improvement nito sa 2010 is, at least, hindi Smartmatic or yung contractor ang magpapatakbo. It will still be Comelec which will be running the election, but using new machines, new software and more transparent processes now,” said Pimentel.
