NPO tightens security for ballot printing

The National Printing Office (NPO) on Thursday said that it has tightened its security for the printing of the official ballots for the May elections, which is scheduled to start on Sunday, January 31. "Everyone is under watch here," NPO Director Servando Hizon told reporters on Thursday. Hizon said they had 12 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed inside the NPO, excluding those placed outside the facility.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal added that they plan to install more of these cameras at the NPO. "This will [allow] watchers from different political parties to... view the premises at any given time," he told reporters during a briefing. Hizon added that aside from the CCTV cameras, the NPO has 64 physical security personnel stationed at the ballot printing area on a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week basis. He added that the number of these guards will be increased to 100 once the printing of the official ballots begin. He also said that access to the ballot printing area itself will be restricted during this time. Larrazabal was quick to note, however, that they will be providing viewing rooms for those who wish to observe the ballot printing at the NPO. Ballot printing The commissioner said that they paid P110 million for the use of space, utilities, and manpower of the NPO. "Under the law, we are required to use the NPO or Central Bank. We chose NPO. The first choice is NPO, Central Bank declined, I don't know why," he said. He said that Comelec has four ballot printers installed at the NPO, most of which are currently printing the 800,000 training ballots for the poll body's voter education projects. "These are all new printers. It's Kodak printers. We are using digital printers," he said. Larrazabal said that each printer has the capacity of printing 200,000 ballots per day if the ballots are 25 to 26 inches in length. "The 800,000 a day [200,000 x 4 printers] is an average but you can speed it up if need be," he said. He said that it will take these printers about 60 to 70 days to print the official ballots for the May polls. Earlier, the poll body said that it will only print ballots based on the number of voters who registered up to October 31. As of January 15, there are already a total number of 50,723,734 registered voters, 37,422 voting centers, and 76,340 clustered precincts. The commissioner said the ballots will be printed on 160 GSM papers imported from Canada. Ballot shipment Larrazabal said the Comelec plans to begin the shipment of the ballots to different parts of the country by March. "The shipping will start around March. This will be shipped to the treasurer's office, who will then distribute it to the BEI on the day of the election," he said. He said they decided to do this to ensure that the ballots will reach the far-flung areas on time. But the commissioner assured the public that the ballots would not be "in danger" during the time between the day it is delivered and election day. "We have to ship a lot of ballots but that will not be distributed yet to the BEIs. It's in a sealed package that can't be opened," he said. Smartmatic Asia President Cesar Flores added that the ballots would be vacuum-sealed and placed in another tamper-proof package. "All the air is gonna be sipped and it's gonna be a tight and robust package... so it will be able to withstand the [different] humidity conditions in the field. The intention... is for the ballots to arrive untouched to the precinct," he said. - JV, GMANews.TV