Comelec to get P13.4-B budget for 2013 polls

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will receive a total budget of P13.4 billion for the 2013 mid-term elections, chairman Sixto Brillantes confirmed yesterday.

“It has been settled already. We were given P5 billion more for 2013 but since there are already available funds it will be given to us this year. They will just give it to us in advance and then next year, they will give us the P8.4 billion,” Brillantes said in a telephone interview.

Prior to this, the Comelec was in a quandary after the Department of Budget and Management announced that it would be able to earmark only P8.4 billion for the 2013 elections. 

For the poll body, the amount was not enough since P1.8 billion will be spent for the purchase and reuse of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines leased by Smartmatic International Corp. in the 2010 polls.

Aside from the PCOS machines, the poll body will also procure election paraphernalia like folders, ballot papers and ball pens and will tap the services of teachers who will oversee the polls.

The Comelec will also tap the services of forwarders that will bring the election materials to polling precincts across the country, among other services.

The agency feared that upcoming polls would revert back to the manual counting of votes if the DBM would not increase their budget.

Meanwhile, the Comelec Employees Union (Comelec-EU) said yesterday that the salary being received by poll employees “is not at par” with those being enjoyed by workers in other constitutional bodies and government agencies.

“While Comelec higher-ups enjoy a string of perks and privileges as highlighted during the Senate hearing, thousands of Comelec rank-and-file workers wallow in poverty because of the dismally low wages that we receive,” Comelec-EU national coordinator Mac Ramirez noted.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano grilled Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes over the alleged extravagant rest house that the agency constructed in Baguio City.

Cayetano claimed that Comelec had procured some P4.3 million worth of beds (P91,250 each); curtains (P694,589.72) and blinds (P340,552.35), while the poll body kept on asking for an increase in their annual budget.

Ramirez added, contrary to the pronouncement of some senators, “it really is not fun in Comelec when it comes to our wages and benefits” for majority of rank-and-file employees.

He said that an Election Officer 1, for instance, only gets a monthly salary of P18,333, which is equivalent to Salary Grade 12 “despite having a huge responsibility of running the elections in a district, city or municipality.”

Employees in the Comelec central office, on the other hand, are usually left with only P3,000 in their monthly paycheck after all the mandatory deductions.

“It is high time that poll workers be justly compensated. A salary increase will certainly boost the morale of almost 6,000 Comelec employees nationwide, especially in light of the recent calamities and unbridled price hikes. We urge our esteemed senators to join us in our cause and conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, on the low wages in Comelec,” Ramirez said.