Comelec ‘fails’ anew in Caloocan City

As the rest of the country focuses on the counting of ballots, several precincts in Caloocan City have yet to start the national and local elections yesterday afternoon.

This, despite the extension of elections in the city declared yesterday by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) due to the failure of the City Treasurer’s Office to distribute ballot boxes and election paraphernalia on election day.

Elizabeth Manalo, public schools district superintendent, again lamented the "lack of system" in the distribution of ballot boxes and election paraphernalia. Manalo told The STAR that the distribution in precincts of the city’s first district was finished only at 2 p.m.

City Treasurer Lourdes Jose came under fire after teachers and members of the Boards of Election Inspectors (BEIs) of different polling precincts in the city blamed her for the unsystematic distribution of the ballot boxes and election materials, of which the City Treasurer’s Office was in charge. The fiasco resulted in the delay of the elections in the city.

Jose, who was summoned by Comelec chairman Alfredo Benipayo to explain the disastrous system of distribution of the ballot boxes and election paraphernalia, claimed that everything was set until some overeager teachers disrupted the distribution at the Caloocan City Trade Center. A staffer of Jose added that the teachers, who had been waiting as early as 1 a.m. Monday, became rowdy and uncontrollable when it began to rain.

Manalo said that only Camarin-D Elementary School in the first district was able to conduct the elections Monday. Still, only six out of 104 precincts in the school were able to hold elections.