All ballots will be printed before April 25 deadline

All ballots to be used for the Philippines’ first nationwide automated polls will be printed within the week, days before its April 25 deadline, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said. "Printing of ballots" will be finished "within the week," Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said at a press briefing on Monday. This was confirmed by Cesar Flores, president of the Asian office of Smartmatic, the company contracted by the Comelec to print ballots and supply poll machines. Smartmatic will be able to finish ballot printing by April 23 or 24 because it was able to meet its target of printing a million ballots a day in the past few weeks. "The printing is going smoothly... it will be a very important milestone once that final ballot comes out of the printer, we're looking forward to it," he told reporters. As of Monday, 46.860 million of the more than 50 million ballots to be used in the May polls have already been printed, Larrazabal said. Earlier, the Comelec earlier brought a fifth Kodak printer to the National Printing Office in Quezon City — where the ballots are being printed — to speed up the process. The Comelec plans to invite the media and the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Poll Automation on the day when the last ballot rolls out of the printer, Larrazabal added. "(There has been) a lot of concern to finish completion within the time specified... this hopefully will lay these false baseless rumors to rest," he said. Ballot transfer Larrazabal said that the transfer of the ballots to the Foreign Service Mail Distribution Center (FSMDC) in Manila is currently ongoing. The poll body had earlier said that the transfer was necessary because there was no more storage space at the NPO. Earlier, however, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. asked the Comelec to explain why it had supposedly paid P92 million for the transfer of the ballots to the FSMDC. But Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said that the P92 million was just a "proposal." He likewise agreed that the amount was too expensive. Although the amount was already cut to P56 million, Melo said he still finds it too costly. On Monday, Larrazabal said that the Comelec will only be paying P23 million for the whole thing. He said that the contract would involve not just the transport but also the arranging of the ballots upon arrival at the FSMDC. Flores explained that the ballots would not just be "dropped" there and would have to be arranged in a "logical way" after it is picked up. Larrazabal could not immediately name the company in charge of the transport and instead said that they plan to release a resolution on the matter on Tuesday. On the other hand, the contract to deliver the ballots to municipal treasurers nationwide has been awarded to Smartmatic. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV