The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said that it did not include in their 2023 proposed budget the extra funding needed if the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections would not push through this December.
Comelec chairman George Garcia revealed this during Albay Representative Edcel Lagman’s questioning of the poll body’s proposed P5.2 billion budget for 2023.
“We need P10 billion [if we will conduct the barangay and SK polls] in May [2023],” said Garcia. He added that the commission would need P17 billion if the elections were postponed to December 2023.
“Mr. Chairman, if there is no budget for the Comelec for the conduct of the elections, then there is no budget for the Comelec to spend,” Garcia added.
Last August, the House Suffrage and Electoral Reforms Committee decided to postpone the barangay and youth council elections to December 4, 2023.
Senator Jinggoy Estrada also submitted a bill aiming to reschedule the elections to the first Monday of December 2023.
— Ronald Espartinez