No need to spend P1M for new ballot boxes

With due respect to the officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), I believe there is no need to spend P100 million for “new ballot boxes” in the 2013 elections just because of the pending election protest filed by Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas against Vice President Jejomar Binay before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET). As reported in some local papers, the Comelec said that it cannot use the 76,000 old ballot boxes made of hard plastic, because they are still being used to keep in safe custody the millions of ballots protested by Roxas.

I suggest, however, that instead of buying 76,000 new and similar hard plastic ballot boxes which will cost more than P100 million, the Comelec could just purchase an equivalent number of corrugated cardboard boxes which, on the average, would only cost around P150 per box for a total cost of only P1 million, thus saving around P99 million. Since the old ballot boxes are still with the various municipal and city treasurers, the Comelec may ask the Supreme Court for authority to retrieve and transfer all the contents of these 76,000 ballot boxes to the cardboard boxes in the presence of the respective representatives of Roxas and Binay.

The cardboard boxes could then be secured with masking tapes signed by the representatives of the contending parties. Thereafter, the Comelec could just leave the old ballot boxes in the same municipality or city for its use in the 2013 elections, thereby generating more savings in capital and operational (delivery) expenditures.

There will be no problem as to the security of the integrity of the protested ballots since, in case of breach thereof, the ballot images from the compact flash (CF) cards could always be resorted to by the parties. After all, in all the election protests involving the 2010 automated elections where ballots were found to have been tampered with or soaked in water, the ballot images were the ones used by the Comelec and the courts as the basis of the recount in compliance with the new rules in resolving such election protest cases.

Furthermore, if Comelec will purchase 76,000 ballot boxes and Roxas’ protest is eventually resolved, the poll body will have an oversupply of 76,000 ballot boxes. That would be a huge waste of P100 million even as Roxas’ protest is practically not moving at all after two and a half years with the PET.

—ROMULO B. MACALINTAL,

election lawyer, Las Pinas City