Ballot printing to continue on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday

There will be no Holy Week break for the printing of ballots that will be used in the first ever nationwide automated elections on May 10. In an interview with reporters Tuesday, Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the printing of the more than 50 million ballots would continue on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. He said stopping production even for a day could lead to a shortfall. The printing is being done at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City. "When you stop printing, you need to ramp up production again, so you take two to three days of a production shortfall," said Larrazabal, who heads the Comelec’s steering committee on automation. He said verification and packing of the ballots would also continue during the two Cahotlic holidays. "If you continue printing but you don't verify, [there would be a] backlog of unverified ballots," he said. The verification of ballots means ensuring that the ballots can be read by the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, the technology that will be used in the May polls. Larrazabal said their decision to continue printing during the Holy Week does not mean they are behind schedule. He said they have already printed about 27 million ballots, with only less than five percent spoilage. On Monday, the Comelec said that the fifth additional printing press helped ramp up the printing. Some of the printed ballots would be stored at the Foreign Service Mail Distribution Center (FSMDC) in Manila due to the limited space at the NPO, according to Larrazabal. "You can't stack it too high kasi masisira [because they might get ruined]," he said. He said that they have already informed the political parties about the move and no one has so far objected. He likewise assured that the ballots would be secured at the FSMDC. — KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV