The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will start next month laying the groundwork for the December 2022 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections despite calls for its postponement, Commissioner George Garcia said on Thursday.
“Definitely this coming June, we will already start the ball rolling for the preparations for the barangay and SK elections.
We cannot presume that Congress will not be proceeding with the elections. We still have to prepare,” Garcia said.
“It will be very hard for us if it suddenly pushes through by September and we have not prepared anything,” Garcia said in an ANC interview.
The poll official made the remark following a statement of House majority leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez that more than P8 billion worth of savings could be generated if the barangay elections set this year would be postponed.
Romualdez suggested that the savings could instead be allocated for COVID-19 response and economic stimulus, as well as aid for those who suffered from the pandemic.
Garcia had earlier said the poll body will heed the decision of Congress on the matter.
He said the P8.6 billion allocated for the 2022 barangay and SK elections was still intact.
“Until today, I can honestly tell you that intact po ang P8.6 billion. Wala pa po kaming releases from the DBM (we don’t have releases from the Department of Budget and Management yet),” he said.
Garcia also noted that the voter registration is set to reopen by July for those who wish to register or reactivate.
The Comelec will also start working on the printing of election documents, procurement of election equipment, and training of poll workers for the barangay and SK polls, earlier set in October 2016, then reset for October 2017, then again reset for May 2018.
However, the exercise still did not push through and eventually rescheduled for May 2022.
Unlike the national and local elections, which have been fully automated since 2010, the 2022 barangay elections would be done manually.