Comelec budget talks set at Palace

Manila, Philippines -  President Aquino will meet with Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes at Malacañang tomorrow to discuss the poll body’s budget for next year’s elections.

The President said he would mediate between the Comelec and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on the funding needs of next year’s midterm elections.

“I am used to playing referee. We will talk to the two. It is our duty to ensure that the elections next year would be credible and peaceful. If there really is deficiency (in funding), then it is our responsibility to find sources of funds,” the President said.

The Comelec had warned that the 2013 elections would be conducted manually if its P8-billion budget for next year will not be increased.

“We’re asking that the budget be returned to P13 billion if the original request of P24 billion isn’t possible,” said Comelec spokesman James Jimenez.

Abad, for his part, said further study should be made on the Comelec’s request for additional budget in light of the commission’s savings and spending history.

“Year after year, the Comelec has spent less than what they’re allotted,” he said in a statement.

“Our review of their previous allocations vis-a-vis their actual budget utilization history helped us trim their 2013 budget to a more realistic level,” he added. 

Abad said the budget cut came after the Supreme Court allowed the Comelec to purchase the more than 80,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) it leased from Smartmatic during the 2010 presidential election.

“They have an appropriation of P7 billion in the 2012 budget for the purchase of new PCOS machines. Since they were to acquire the Smartmatic PCOS for P1.8 billion, they would save P5.2 billion from their P7-billion appropriation. That is the amount we cut from their P13-billion budget for 2013,” he explained.

Abad said Comelec could use the P5.2 billion on top of the P8 billion in its 2013 budget for the May elections.

“So they will have more than P13 billion. Aside from that, they have unobligated funds amounting to P6 billion as of last March, which they can also use. I think they have more than sufficient funds. The problem is they don’t want to use their savings,” he said.

Brillantes said he is confident that the confusion over the Comelec’s 2013 budget would be settled during the meeting.

“We have been talking now. We are reconciling the figures. And maybe by Monday, this will be settled,” he said.

Brillantes said their initial P24-billion budget proposal was based on a wrong computation.

“We made a new computation, which brought down our request to P17 billion. But the DBM cut it to P13 billion. We told them we could live with that despite the P4-billion reduction, but they cut it down further by P5 billion to P8 billion,” he said.

Bidding for PCOS warehouse

Meanwhile, the Comelec will conduct another bidding for the warehouse to store the 81,000 PCOS machines to be used in next year’s elections.

Brillantes said they would proceed with the negotiated contract for the P112-million project after the two previous biddings failed.

“We are going to a re-bidding. We will have to re-publish the re-bidding, which is requirement of the procurement law,” Brillantes said.

The Comelec-Special Bids and Awards Committee declared the lone bid last Monday of RV Marzan Forwarders Inc. and Bodega Site IT Solutions Inc. ineligible for failing to meet the requirements.

Brillantes said the primary requirement is for the warehouse to have the necessary facilities to configure the PCOS machines.

“If we could not find a new warehouse and we will not get Smartmatic’s warehouse, we have to pay them on a monthly basis. Right now, it is free for us until Aug. 31,” he said.

Brillantes was referring to a warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna, which Smartmatic has been renting since 2010 to keep the PCOS machines.

A Comelec source had claimed that Smartmatic was leasing the warehouse for P11 million a month. – With Jess Diaz, Sheila Crisostomo