P7B allotted for 2019 mid term polls
THERE will be mid-term elections next year, according to Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno.
On Tuesday, July 31, the first day of the 2019 budget deliberations at the House of Representatives, House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. asked how much was allocated for the mid-term polls.
“We’re not discussing no- el [ no election] scenario,” Diokno said.
According to the DBM chief, the allocation for next year’s elections is P7
billion under the P3.757-trillion proposed 2019 budget.
“There will be elections next year,” Diokno said.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel 3rd on Tuesday said the polls would be automated since there is no more time to amend the law to allow the conduct of a “hybrid” election system.
The senator made the remark after conducting a public hearing on the revelation of Senate President Vicente Sotto 3rd on the questionable transmission of election results in the May 2016 national elections.
Sotto and Sen. Cynthia Villar support a hybrid election system but Congress must first amend the Automated Election System (AES) law .
“Medyo time angkalabannatin (Time is our enemy). I think there is no time anymore for 2019 [midterm elections]. But the idea is worth pursuing,” Pimentel said in an interview.
“Ibig sabihin ibabalik natin ang manual na bi lang ans a pres into para ma ki tang ta um bay an n’ya ( This means that we will return to manual counting of votes so that the people will see the result of the election in their precinct),” he said.
Pimentel, chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation, also warned the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic to fix the issues raised in previous polls.
“K a pa gm ar a mi par in issues at mar a mi par ink a pal pa kan
walanatayo choice, we will abandon it and go to hybrid ( If there will be more issues and irregularities that will crop up, we will have no choice but to abandon the poll automation and go hybrid),” he said.
Meanwhile, one of the resource speakers, Glenn Chong, claimed that “clone or fake machines” were used in the transmission of votes during the 2016 national polls.
“If there will be another hearing, we will try to produce or to recreate how these clone machines were used. We will do that,” he said in an interview.