Comelec urges Congress to decide on barangay, SK polls

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal yesterday called on Congress to decide on the proposals to postpone the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections scheduled for October.

“What we would like to ask (Congress) is we be given guidance and we be advised early on whether or not the elections will push through so we can make the necessary adjustments and preparations,” Larrazabal said, stressing that Comelec could save a lot of government funds.

“It would be hard if you cancel and postpone the elections at the last minute because we would have spent already on the training, registration, printing of ballots and other preparation,” he added.

Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said the poll body has already made the necessary preparations for the conduct of the barangay and SK elections on Oct. 25.

The Comelec had issued Resolution No. 9004 setting the official SK voter’s registration period from Aug. 6 to 15.

The registration period for voters for barangay officials will run from Aug. 1 to 10. 

Sarmiento turned down the calls to postpone the elections, saying the October electoral exercise “is the legitimate channel to make the officials accountable to the people which means also infusing new faces, new blood to public service.”

Sarmiento, however, said it would be up to Congress to decide on whether to postpone the elections. He added Comelec would definitely obey if the proposal were made into law.

Last week, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri filed Senate Bill 60 seeking the deferment of the twin elections.

Zubiri also wanted the three-year term of barangay and SK officials extended to five years to implement long-term projects.

The National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), on the other hand, said the Comelec should refrain from using the automated election system (AES) in the October barangay elections, unless its flaws are addressed.

Namfrel head Jose Cuisia said the automated election system should be reviewed and reformed.

“Unless they really addressed the flaws of the automated election system, we are not recommending the use of automation in the following elections. The lack of auditability and traceability is a major problem,” he said.

Cuisia pointed out that one of the problems of the automated system is that the voters could not confirm whether the machine had read their votes correctly.

Cuisia also cited the problem of the memory cards used in the automated machines, which he claimed, led to more public confusion.

He said the handling of the memory cards has emerged as one of the most critical points of the entire automated election process.

While the public was led to believe that PCOS machines were uniquely matched to precincts, it now seems more apparent that memory cards were the ones that were uniquely matched to the precincts and that the automated counting machines may have been generic, he said.

Cuisia also cited the number of voters as reflected in the certified voters list was too high in relation to the actual population.

Sarmiento, on the other hand, admitted the automated election was not perfect since it had “glitches, snags, snafus and zigzags.”

“Learning from these lessons, we are learning. The automated election needs amendments like the ladderized canvassing, random manual audit, and voters’ education. We have to improve all this,” he said.

Sarmiento also said Congress should amend the laws concerning party list representation, as well as the statement of expenses and contributions, posters, the problems on vote-buying and vote-selling and political turncoatism of candidates. He said almost all party lists representatives now sitting in Congress are millionaires.

“There are many political butterflies in the country today, where one candidate transfers from one political party to the other. Should these be not addressed by Congress to make our politicians mature?” he asked.

Sarmiento told Cuisia during the forum sponsored by the Rotary Club of Makati yesterday that Comelec is amenable to all proposals regarding the improvement and reforms of the electoral system.

“We are also asking a copy from Joey Cuisia to talk about it. This is a listening Comelec. I think we have shown our resiliency. Should we be using the same system ... same technology. No,” Sarmiento said. – With Jose Rodel Clapano