MANILA, Philippines — The six million ballots that have been printed for the May 12 midterm elections will have to be disposed of through shredding following the Supreme Court (SC)’s issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the disqualification of one senatorial aspirant, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
At a press briefing yesterday, Comelec Chairman George Garcia disclosed that poll officials would ask permission from the Commission on Audit (COA) to have these ballots secured and then destroyed.
“There is a need to subject these ballots to an inventory and submit a report to COA. We will not burn, but will shred all these ballots so that fears that they might be used in the coming elections will be erased,” Garcia said.
“We should remember that these ballots are original ballots and therefore, if these will be fed inside the machine, they will be accepted,” he added.
A ballot costs about P22, according to the Comelec.
“That is what we are paying the National Printing Office. We have to also consider the paper, ink, as well as the pay of our dayshift and nightshift workers at the NPO. So more or less that is our expense,” Garcia said.
The SC on Tuesday released a TRO against the disqualification of senatorial aspirant Subair Guinthum Mustapha and four local candidates, including former Caloocan City representative Edgar Erice.
Given the TRO, the Comelec suspended the printing of ballots as the poll body should include Mustapha on the list of senatorial candidates.
“We are already delayed. But these two weeks we have lost, it will be subtracted from the 77 days of ballot printing we have set... All the activities related to the ballots will have to be pushed back,” Garcia said.
The Comelec said it is also looking at using the NPO’s four additional printing machines, together with the two provided by Miru Systems now being used to fast-track the printing of new ballots.
“We also directed our Law Department to study how we can make use of these four extra printing machines of the NPO so that they can be used simultaneously because technically, we lost almost two weeks as to the printing of ballots since we are now back to zero,” Garcia explained.
He said they plan to resume the printing of ballots by Monday next week.
Despite a delay in its timeline for the May elections, the Comelec stressed that the elections would push through and would still use an automated election system.
“(The May 12 elections) will not be reset since that is what is stated in the Constitution. We are not thinking of postponing. The Comelec will do everything,” Garcia said.
“We will proceed with the automated elections because that is the law. The Comelec does not have any intention of violating the law,” he added.
At the same time, the Comelec chief advised the public not to worry, giving assurance that they are in control of the situation.
“We have prepared for this kind of scenario, although what happened as to the national position, we did not anticipate this one to happen,” he said, adding that there is no problem as to the local positions because ballots have not been printed yet.
Quiboloy Hopeful
Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) leader Apollo Quiboloy is hopeful that the case filed by senatorial aspirant Jose Sonny Matula alongside the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party (WWP) will be dismissed by the SC.
Quiboloy’s head legal counsel Israelito Torreon told The STAR “there is simply no rhyme or reason for the disqualification of Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy.”
Torreon added that Quiboloy “has all the qualifications and none of the disqualifications to run for senator of the Republic of the Philippines.”
The religious leader, currently detained on charges of human trafficking and child abuse, is accused by Matula’s camp of using the elections as a way to deflect attention from the cases he is facing.
Matula recently filed a petition for review to overturn the Comelec’s ruling dismissing their disqualification case earlier filed against Quiboloy, whom he accused of being a nuisance candidate in the 2025 senatorial race.
The WPP yesterday filed a petition before SC challenging the Comelec’s decision dismissing their plea to declare Quiboloy a nuisance candidate.
Matula, who is also running for senator in the midterm elections, and the WPP filed a petition before the SC on the basis that the Comelec’s ruling reportedly exemplifies a double standard in enforcing procedural rules, undermining fairness, equal protection and the rule of law in the electoral process.
The WPP argued that “while the Comelec rigidly enforces procedural requirements against petitioners, it has shown undue leniency toward Quiboloy.”
Despite being served a notice on Nov. 4 last year requiring him to file an answer within five days, Quiboloy failed to comply and submitted his response over a month later on Dec. 10.
But instead of sanctioning the pastor, the Comelec reportedly dismissed the WPP’s petition, thus effectively rewarding non-compliance and undermining public trust in its impartiality.
The WPP also mentioned that there is violation of equal protection under the law.
It said the Comelec decision “reflects unequal treatment of candidates, favoring powerful figures like Quiboloy while disregarding the rights of law-abiding individuals such as Matula’s partymate Sultan Subair Mustapha of Marawi.”
“This selective enforcement of rules contradicts the constitutional guarantee of equal protection, which ensures fair treatment for all candidates,” the group added.
The WPP also expressed belief that Quiboloy is making a mockery of the electoral process, using it as a smokescreen for the many cases he is facing. – Diana Lhyd Suelto, Evelyn Macairan