Comelec asks Senate for additional budget

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is asking the Senate to increase or restore some items in its budget for 2012. During Wednesday's Senate finance committee meeting on the poll body's proposed budget for 2012, Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said they had asked for a budget of P15.9 billion but the Budget Department only recommended an allocation of P9.9 billion. Brillantes said they are only asking the Senate to restore their proposed P164-million budget for personnel services and the P51-million allocation for overseas absentee voting (OAV) registration, which was allegedly transferred to the budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Senate finance committee chairman Sen. Franklin Drilon, however, said the Comelec has an unobligated allotment of P5.307 billion since 2010. Brillantes said the allotment was the poll body's accumulated savings starting 2004. "We will look into that because there is even an unobligated P5 billion funds, we will review this. (But) in fairness, they are not asking for (the) reinstatement of all P5 billion," said Drilon. Brillantes likewise said they are willing to source from their own savings the funding needed for an automated polls in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, depending on the decision of the Supreme Court (SC). President Benigno Aquino III had earlier signed into law the measure seeking to synchronize the ARMM elections with the 2013 polls. It is being contested before the SC. During the same hearing, Comelec Commissioner Gus Lagman said the proposed budget to automate the ARMM polls was P130 million for the purchase of 4,000 PCOS units; P755 million for other services; and P500 million for personnel services within the Comelec. "Against the integrity of the elections it's all worth it," said Sen. Panfilo Lacson during the same hearing. The DBM, however, only approved a budget of P480 million for the ARMM elections. But Sen. Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, chairman of the Senate electoral reforms committee, suggested that the poll body consider using another voting technology. "(The) PCOS has been studied by syndicates," Pimentel said during the hearing. But Brillantes said that although they are planning on negotiating with Smartmatic with regards to extending the lease of the machines, they will also consider other suppliers. The lease agreement with Smartmatic expired on Dec. 31, 2010. If the Comelec had purchased the machines before the end of the deal, they would have only had to pay for half of the machines' worth. Drilon said they will leave the matter to the Comelec to decide. "However it is our view that the election, if one takes place in the ARMM, must be automated," he said. Lacson, meanwhile, asked the where the poll body had spent its P30-million intelligence funds and P4.5 billion in unliquidated expenses last year. Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said the intelligence funds were used for surveillance of certain persons believed to be plotting electoral sabotage in 2010. On the other hand, Brillantes said they have already liquidated around P3 billion of their unliquidated expenses. — RSJ, GMA News