By Ferdinand G. Patinio
MANILA, (PNA) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) reiterated its call on local government units (LGUs) to help them finance the forthcoming October 28 Barangay elections by allocating P10,000 from their fund.
Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said that the funding will not be for the commission but for the salary of the teachers, who will serve as Board of Elections Tellers (BETs) in this month’s elections.
“It’s not for ourselves but for the teachers,” he said in an earlier interview.
However, he said that the elections will push through whether the LGUs will give the P10,000 or not.
“Whatever happens, whether they give the 10K or not, the elections will push through. Kung bibigyan kami ng P10,000 or not, pero we will put on record and hindi nagbigay…” the poll body chief added.
But, he noted that they already got response from some LGUs.
“Mayroon ng mga nagbigay e, sa National Capital Region, Region 4, may collections na kami. That will be about P400 million. Malaking tulong sa teachers yun,” Brillantes said.
The Comelec said that they need P3.45 billion for the village elections but they only got P1.175 billion from the General Appropriations Act of 2013. The P2.28 billion balance was sourced from poll body’s own savings.
Since they need additional funds, the Comelec was prompted to issue Comelec Resolution No. 9739, which requires every barangay in the country to allocate P10,000 each for the scheduled polls.
The resolution has given barangay officials until October 18 to send in their allocation.
Section 50 of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC) states that “local governments shall appropriate funds to defray such necessary and reasonable expenses of the members of the board of election tellers (BETs), board of canvassers (BOC), the printing of election forms, the procurement of other election paraphernalia, and the installation of polling booths”.