THE printing of the official ballots for the May 9 national and local elections is being done according to the approved schedule and is not meant to favor any candidate contrary to the claim of Liberal Party co-chairman and Senate President Franklin Drilon.
“I think we are printing it at the proper time. We are not in a hurry. We are also not printing the ballots late. We are printing the ballots when they are supposed to be printed,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said Thursday.
Jimenez made the remark in response to Drilon’s claim that the printing of the ballot was being “railroaded” even if the Supreme Court has not yet ruled with finality on all pending disqualification charges, particularly of Davao Mayor Rodolfo Duterte and Senator Grace Poe.
“[But] elections cannot proceed if the Comelec is not properly ready for it. And that is all that is behind this timing of printing of ballots. The bottom line for the Comelec is readiness for the elections,” Jimenez explained.
“Whatever happens to the case of Senator Poe, we will treat those who will also go to the SC the same way. We will treat it exactly the same way. We will treat a certain candidate the same as other candidates,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez reiterated that not following the previously agreed schedule would not only hinder preparations, but may also give the suggestion that the Comelec is already disqualifying a candidate even if that bet is entitled to a review by the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, former Comelec chairman Christian Monsod said it is only proper for the poll body to start printing official ballots because there are other solutions if the high court decides to disqualify Poe.
ï†gWe donï†ft want to mess out on the timeliness on the distribution of those ballots. I donï†ft think we can sacrifice that when there are other solutions,ï†h Monsod said during the launch of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections votersï†f education campaign at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines office in Pasig City.
Monsod said the Comelec can still delete Poe’s name from the ballots if the SC ruled against her in the disqualification cases using the PCOS software.
“If the decision of the Supreme Court is against Ms. Grace Poe they [Comelec] can always resort to changing the software. They can do it by software in which case the software need not count that’s space,” he said.
“There are ways of doing it. It’s difficult and it must be carefully watched but it is not impossible to do. So that still can be done any time. I think up to one month before the elections before they can amend the software. So they have in effect up to April,” Monsod added.