Like hundreds of other legislative measures filed for enactment, there is one landmark proposed law called as “Integrity Bill” that has failed to muster votes of our lawmakers in two Congresses past. The proposed “Integrity Bill” specifically refers to the Commission on Elections (Comelec). The seven-man poll body, chaired by veteran election lawyer George Garcia, included the proposed “Comelec Integrity Act” among the recommendations reached during the National Election Summit held last March 8 to 10.
The proposed law seeks to strengthen the Comelec by providing office spaces separate and independent from local government units (LGUs) and appropriating funds from the annual budget of the national government. Specifically, this will amend the provision of the Omnibus Election Code which only allows the LGUs, not the poll body, to provide office space for their respective local Comelec.
The Comelec is the only constitutional body that does not have its own building.
That is according to Comelec official spokesman John Rex Laudiangco. But sooner than later this year, the Comelec will finally get to build its own edifice complex. Laudiangco announced in our Kapihan sa Manila Bay last week that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has given the green light for the P8.9-billion project to construct the Comelec complex. Laudiangco hailed the DBM for approving last March 29 their long pending request for the Multi-Year Contractual Authority (MYCA).
With funding secured, he stressed, this would enable them to start the bidding process for the construction of the new Comelec head office and two multi-purpose buildings for the more than 2,000 officials and personnel of the poll body in the National Capital Region (NCR). It will rise at the Central Business Park 1 Island A in the Mall of Asia (MOA) Complex at the Manila Bay reclamation area in Pasay City. The Comelec acquired the three-hectare land property for P1 billion in 2013 from the Public Estates Authority and the Philippine Reclamation Authority.
“The Comelec will finally realize our dream of having a permanent home in 83 years of existence,” Laudiangco raved.
Based from their architect plans, Laudiangco estimated the future Comelec head office would be built over the next two to three years. The two adjoining multi-purpose buildings are slated for completion in four to five years. The Comelec complex will put together under one roof all their offices scattered around Metro Manila.
Once completed, he disclosed, the canvassing of the next presidential and national elections by May 2028 can be conducted within the specially built function halls of the soon to rise Comelec complex. This means, he added, the national canvassing will no longer be done at the Philippine International Convention Center along Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City.
The Comelec is currently leasing three floors of the seven-storey Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros, Manila. The Palacio is owned by the Office of the President. The other Comelec offices are renting spaces in the Shipping Center Bldg. at Andres Soriano St., and in the Red Cross Bldg. in Gen. Antonio Luna St., all located in Intramuros as well as the Comelec NCR office at P1 Bldg. at Bgy. Greenhills in San Juan City.
A case in point, he cited, he crosses the street at least five to ten times a day from the Comelec spokesman’s office at the Shipping Center Bldg. to attend meetings at the Palacio located across from his place of work.
The Comelec has been renting also warehouse spaces for the repository of its ballot boxes, vote counting machines (VCMs), and other election-related equipment in Sta. Rosa, Laguna; Sta. Mesa, Manila; and in Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City. Laudiangco justified the urgency of the passage into law of the “Comelec Integrity Act” that would enable the government to save around P169 million in the annual budget for office space rental payments.
The building complex is the seeming lynchpin of the proposed “Comelec Integrity Act” that they are asking the present 19th Congress to pass into law, at least before the holding of the next elections in our country by May 2025. Laudiangco disclosed the proposed “Comelec Integrity Act” is among the wish list of legislative measures they submitted to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) at the end of the three-day summit.
However, the proposed “Comelec Integrity Act” is not mentioned among the administration’s priority bills and neither in the common legislative agenda of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC). The proposed bill has been re-filed on Oct.12 last year under Senate Bill 1384 authored by Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.
According to Laudiangco, the Comelec has been actively engaged with the Technical Working Group (TWG) in both chambers of the 19th Congress that have been handling bills on electoral reforms pending in various stages of the legislative mills. Currently enjoying their one-month recess, our lawmakers will resume sessions on May 8 this year.
The Senate and the Lower House will adjourn sine die their first regular sessions in June 2 this year. They will start the second regular sessions on July 24. By then, PBBM will deliver his next state of the nation address to spell out his new legislative priorities.
“At the summit, President Marcos mentioned to chairman Garcia it’s about time for the Comelec to have independence,” Laudiangco recalled.
Laudiangco believes the passage into law of the proposed “Comelec Integrity Act” would provide the “milestone of independence” of the poll body. If approved into law, he explained, this would protect them from the undue pressure, interference, and other unscrupulous antics by politicians trying to gain leverage, most especially from the local poll officers of the Comelec.
But counting on the proposed “Comelec Integrity Act” is not the be-all or the end-all to cure the various gaps and loopholes in the Omnibus Election Code and other existing election laws in the Philippines.