Quezon City: The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has successfully printed approximately 27 million official ballots since initiating the reprinting process in late January. Chairperson George Erwin Garcia announced that this number represents 37 percent of the total 72,107,420 official ballots required for the upcoming May 12 elections.
According to Philippines News Agency, Garcia provided an update during a press briefing at Amoranto Sports Complex in Quezon City, stating, "As far as ballot printing is concerned, we are so far so good. We have been exceeding our daily target of ballots to be printed." Garcia further estimated that the entire ballot printing process could be completed by the second or third week of March, potentially as early as March 19, contingent on the continued performance of the printing machines.
To expedite the verification of printed ballots, Comelec has opened a verification facility at Amoranto. This facility is equipped with approximately 250 automated counting machines (ACMs) and an additional 500 verifiers for both machine and manual verification processes. Garcia explained, "If we are able to verify one million per day here (Amoranto) and another one million per day at the National Printing Office (NPO), we will have two million per day for verification. That's 20 million in 10 days. That's a good output." Currently, at least three million official ballots have been verified at the NPO in Quezon City.
Despite some candidates withdrawing from the senatorial race, Garcia confirmed that the printing process would proceed without changes to the already printed ballots. "In any case, whoever withdraws now, we will not change the printed ballot. We continue. We can no longer compromise the 27 million ballots we printed," he stated, adding that votes for withdrawn candidates would not be counted and would be considered stray.
Dr. Willie Ong, a health advocate and senatorial candidate, is the latest to withdraw, citing health reasons due to his battle with sarcoma, a rare type of cancer, requiring treatment abroad. Ong officially announced his withdrawal to focus on his health, with his wife, Liza, having filed his candidacy in October last year. Garcia indicated that candidates like Ong, unable to file withdrawal statements personally, would be allowed to submit through a doctor's certification.
Earlier in the week, AGRI party-list Representative Wilbert Lee also withdrew from the Senate race due to insufficient campaign resources.
