Sep 05, 2024 - 00:01
By manilatimes.net

Comelec poll budget P14B less than sought

THE budget of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the «superelection year» 2025 is P14 billion less than the poll body proposed.

In the budget deliberations at the House of Representatives (HoR) on Tuesday, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said that Comelec «is preparing for next year's superelection year.»

Garcia said the country would hold national and local elections and the first Bangsamoro parliamentary polls simultaneously in May 2025, and later in the year, it will hold BSK or Barangay (village) and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK or youth council) polls.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia

Data cited during the House Committee on Appropriations' budget deliberations indicated that the Comelec proposed a P49.7 billion.

But in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2025 submitted by the executive branch to the HoR, the allocation for the poll body was only P35.47 billion or a cut of about P14 billion, including the P3.062 billion for the National and Local Elections.

«The P3 billion for the National and Local Elections that we lost is a big amount that includes, Your Honors, the training of our more than 300,000 teachers who will serve in the coming elections of 2015,» Garcia said in Filipino.

In the NEP, P1.241 billion was allocated for command conferences and training of poll workers.

Also, Garcia said teachers would receive an additional P2,000 across the board for their election services.

In the NEP, P11.59 billion was allocated for the BSKE. The Comelec had proposed P19.89 billion.

For overseas voting, Comelec had proposed P473.49 million. The allocation for overseas voting in the NEP was P111.91 million.

Garcia said they would be glad if the proposed budget would be restored but said the poll body would not insist on it to avoid putting pressure on the Committee on Appropriations.

However, Garcia told the committee that under the NEP, there would be no additional P2,000 for teachers for the 2025 BSKE, as the item was part of the P11 billion that was stricken out.

The House Committee on Appropriations is conducting budget deliberations to craft the General Appropriations Bill for 2025.

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Meanwhile, Comelec