Comelec asks Senate for P1.2-B more for BARMM poll preparations
INQUIRER Files
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has requested the Senate for an additional P1.2 billion to reset preparations for the first Bangsamoro parliamentary elections, after the Supreme Court (SC) postponed the polls.
Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia announced the request on Tuesday, over a month after the SC postponed the October 13 elections, declaring that Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) No. 77 and its predecessor, BAA No. 58, are both unconstitutional.
“Yesterday, we wrote to Senator [Sherwin] Gatchalian to request additional funds for Bangsamoro. We are asking for more or less P1.2 billion to cover the shortfall in election preparations,” Garcia told reporters in an interview.
READ: Comelec eyes P1.3-B additional budget for Bangsamoro polls
Garcia noted that every resetting of elections in the country requires additional funding. He previously expressed the poll body’s intention to write to Gatchalian, chair of the Senate finance committee, for the extra budget, after the Comelec had completed its budget hearings at the House plenary level.
Following the postponement, Garcia said the poll body effectively wasted P1.2 billion, as it had already printed ballots, deployed election materials, and leased automated counting machines.
On October 1, the SC postponed the elections, originally scheduled for October 13, 2025, after ruling that the recent redistricting law, BAA No. 77, and its predecessor, BAA No. 58, were unconstitutional.
The SC directed the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) to determine the distribution of district parliamentary seats by October 30, while the Comelec must conduct the elections no later than March 31, 2026.
However, Garcia said the BTA still has until November 30, 2025, to pass a redistricting law, after failing to meet the SC’s primary deadline of October 30.
READ: Comelec: BTA has until Nov. 30 to pass redistricting law
As the poll body awaits a new law from the parliament, Garcia said it aims to reopen the filing of certificates of candidacy in the first week of January and begin printing ballots in February.
BAA No. 77, signed into law on August 28, redistributed seven seats originally allocated to Sulu. The SC previously ruled that Sulu should be excluded from the region after the province rejected the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law in a plebiscite. Meanwhile, BAA No. 58 established the parliamentary districts in the region.
The BARMM Parliament has 80 seats: 40 for party representatives, 32 for single-member parliamentary districts, and eight for sectoral representatives. /mcm
