BSKE will be manual; Filipinos ‘want to write down their votes’ – Garcia
CROWDING Voters come in droves to Balangasan Central Elementary School in Pagadian City at 7 a.m. on Monday, May 12, 2025 to cast their votes. (Photo from RAY ORTIZ / CONTRIBUTOR)
MANILA, Philippines — The 2025 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) set on December 1 this year will be completely manual, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
This is what Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Friday as he answered the question if there is a possibility that the 2025 BSKE will be automated.
“Of course, the preparations of the Comelec are for full manual elections,” Garcia told reporters in an interview.
“We are studying if we can conduct even just a pilot test of automated elections,” he said.
“But if we’ll do that, you will have to again rent machines, and therefore, this will add to the expenses for the BSKE,” he aired his discomfort.
Garcia said that implementing manual elections for the BSKE will be less expensive than the automated voting and canvassing.
He said P11 billion has been allocated for the BSKE.
If these elections will be automated, the cost will go up to around P19 billion.
“In the end, there is a reason why. I will admit why the barangay polls are manual: It is because it is personalised,” the poll chief disclosed.
“Our countrymen really want to write down their votes. We recognize that kind of interest in voting,” he emphasized.
READ: Bill giving 4-year term to brgy, SK execs unconstitutional — Macalintal
However, Garcia observes that it is really the automated elections that reduce the risk of election-related violence or irregularities.
“No ballot box snatchings are seen. No intimidation, threat or death mainly against electoral board members or municipal board of canvassers,” he said.
The Comelec has began its preparations for the BSKE.
“Until there is no law that postpones the BSKE, it will push through on December 1,” Garcia maintained./apl
