Senate approves P2.45-B allotment for May polls

The Senate unanimously approved yesterday House Bill 12704 seeking to appropriate P2.45 billion to fund the holding of local and national elections in May.

Sen. John Osmeña, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said the approval of the House bill without any amendment has facilitated the enactment of the measure.

He explained that had there been any amendment, there would have been a need to constitute a bicameral conference committee to reconcile differing provisions in the two chambers’ respective versions of the measure.

"This would have been further complicated by the fact that most of the committee in the House are vacant as of the moment," Osmeña added.

The House called for the enactment of a separate measure for the May elections because of the difficulty of passing the 2001 general appropriations act. Osmeña said that the budget for the elections was lifted in toto from the 2001 national budget.

He added that the P2.45 billion no longer includes the proposed P1-billion budget for the election modernization. He said that Commission on Elections Chairman Harriet Demetriou has recommended the deletion of the item because of the controversy surrounding the award of the contract.

In reply to a question by Sen. Raul Roco, chairman of the Senate committee on suffrage and electoral reforms, Osmeña said there is no need to increase the P2.45 billion to fund the proposed special registration of new voters on Feb. 17-18.

"We have reenacted the 2000 budget and this has P220 million which we can use for the registration of voters," Osmeña said.

The P2.45 billion does not include the provision for increase in government personnel. Osmeña said that this is imbedded in the proposed 2001 national budget.

The Senate approved the House measure on third and final reading a few minutes after approving it on second reading because it was a certified measure. The certification of urgency was signed by ousted President Joseph Estrada but the Senate acknowledged it as binding just the same.

"President Estrada certified the measure as urgent before you went to EDSA," Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. told Sen. Franklin Drilon who asked when the certification was issued.

Meanwhile, the Comelec finally agreed yesterday to hold a special registration on Feb. 17-18 for first-time voters who failed to register before the deadline last month.

The commitment of the Comelec was given during a committee hearing yesterday afternoon by the Senate committee on suffrage and electoral reforms headed by Sen. Raul Roco.

Earlier, the Comelec rejected the proposal to extend the period of registration of new voters, saying this would only create more problems.

Roco and Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. both pressed for the holding of special registration of new voters. They pointed out that after EDSA II, the youth have expressed a strong desire to participate in the upcoming elections. Many of these youths, they noted, had previously announced their intention to boycott the elections. – Efren Danao