Comelec can secure funds for Camarines Sur plebiscite

MANILA, Philippines – Moves to create the province of Nueva Camarines Sur from the fourth and fifth districts of Camarines Sur were given a boost after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) gave assurance that it can secure a budget for the holding of a plebiscite.

In a letter to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said the poll body can spend a portion of its savings to hold the plebiscite which is meant to ratify a proposed law creating the new province.

In a letter dated April 18, Brillantes said the funds for the plebiscite will be taken from the P401.772-million balance of the P480-million budget for the cancelled regional elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao last year.

“The funding requirement for the plebiscite for Camarines Sur, which is estimated at P70 million, can be charged to the said net balance of the allocation for the ARMM elections,” he added.

The Nueva Camarines bill, authored by Deputy Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella, is now pending before the Senate committee on local government headed by Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The House of Representatives approved it on a vote of 229-1.

Earlier, Abad had urged Brillantes in a letter to use a portion of the Comelec’s P4.7-billion savings in 2011 for the plebiscite while giving assurance that the poll body’s budgetary needs for 2013 would be met.

Abad told Brillantes that “all reforms, electoral included, are a priority of the President as part of his social contract.”