The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Sunday said it will resume the printing of the 73 million on Monday, January 27, “at all cost” despite pending petitions filed in the Supreme Court (SC).
Poll chairman George Garcia said that the poll body has already written to the SC, informing them that the resumption of the ballot printing will push through tomorrow, despite several other petitions still pending before the high court.
In a radio interview, Garcia insisted to push through with printing on Monday even if there are cases still pending before the Supreme Court.
“We are aware that there are still pending petitions and these may still increase as others might have become impressed that some got TROs (temporary restraining orders). But for us, we will continue printing ballots as long as there are no additional TROs,” he said.
The Comelec discarded six million printed ballots after the high court issued TROs, allowing at least eight nuisance candidates to run for various positions in the 2025 midterm elections.
The ballot printing was supposed to resume last week but it was pushed back further following the withdrawal of senatorial aspirant Francis Leo Marcos.
With this, the Comelec set a target of producing 1.5 million ballots daily as it resumes the ballot printing today.
Before printing was postponed due to changes necessitated by the TROs issued by the SC and other developments, the poll body was aiming to print one million ballots daily.