MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will resume printing ballots for the 2025 midterm elections on Wednesday, January 22.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia revealed this in an interview on Sunday, January 19, following the Supreme Court’s restraining order preventing the poll body from declaring five aspirants as nuisance candidates.
Related Stories
Garcia added that the poll body plans to use all available machines at the National Printing Office (NPO) to address delays in ballot printing.
“Plano na nating gamitin ang lahat-lahat.ng makina ng NPO at ‘yung dalawang bagong makina na dinala naman ng Miru Systems, so para hopefully, ay makagawa ng paraan na ma-doble man lang ang production output sa bawat araw,” Garcia said in an interview with DZBB.
(We plan to use all the machines at the NPO, including the two new machines brought in by Miru Systems, to hopefully find a way to double the daily production output.)
The ballot printing was initially scheduled to be completed by April 14. However, due to the Supreme Court's restraining order, this deadline may not be met.
“Malamang lumampas tayo sa April 14 sa pag-iimprinta," Garcia said.
(We will likely go beyond April 14 in printing)
Despite the delay in printing, Garcia assured the public that the ballots would be ready in time for the May elections.
“Ngayon, hindi na tayo masyadong on track dahil sa dalawang linggong nawala sa atin. Medyo sumablay na tayo doon sa timeline natin. Pero huwag pong mag-alala…Mahahabol natin at may mga contingency measure naman tayo,” he added.
(Right now, we're no longer fully on track due to the two weeks we lost. We've fallen a bit behind our timeline. But don't worry... We'll catch up, and we have contingency measures in place.)
On January 14, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order directing the Comelec to halt the disqualification and declaration of five aspirants as "nuisance" candidates.
As a result, the poll body had to dispose of six million ballots worth P132 million, which had begun printing on January 6.
Chavit's name no longer included in new ballot
As the ballots for the national elections are printed, the name of former Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson will no longer appear on the new ballot.
This was confirmed by Garcia in a Viber message to Philstar.com on Thursday, January 16.
Citing health concerns, Singson withdrew from the Senate race on January 12.
“Matapos ang mahabang pag-iisip, ang desisyon ko po, hindi na po ako tutuloy sa aking kandidatura sa Senado,” Singson said addressing his supporters.
(After much deliberation, my decision is that I will no longer proceed with my candidacy for the Senate).