MANILA, Philippines – The Senate passed a bill providing a supplemental budget allocating the equivalent to $250 million for the full automation of the 2010 polls as requested by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Senator Edgardo Angara, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, said the members convened as a committee of the whole during their regular session late Wednesday night to hasten the approval of the bill.
Angara added that the measure was deemed ratified because the Senate and the House of Representatvies approved an identical measure.
This means, he explained, that the bill would no longer pass scrutiny by the bicameral conference committee of the House and the Senate whose main function is to resolve conflicting versions of a measure approved by the two chambers.
As it is, Angara said the Senate decided to adopt the measure earlier approved by the House, which sought to authorize the release of $250 million as supplemental budget for the full computerization of the 2010 elections in which voters are to elect the successor of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo whose term expires next year as mandated by the 1987 Constitution.
Also to be elected are the vice president, senators, congressmen, provincial governors, city and municipal mayors as well as other officials of local government units such as vice mayor and councilor.
Angara said he was assured by Congressman Junie Cua of Quirino province in Cagayan Valley in the Northern Luzon highlands, the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, that the bill passed by the lower chamber was a “clear and pure” supplemental measure with no restrictions.
Cua likewise assured him, Angara said, that no provision was inserted in the bill which authorizes a “hybrid” electoral system, or a combination of automated and manual counting in next year’s polls.
With the ratification by both the House and the Senate, an enrolled copy of the bill will be sent to Malacanang for signing into law by President Arroyo who has certified the measure as urgent to Congress, Angara added.
Despite the cramming by Congress, he said the Philippines would be able to deploy election automation in 2010 as planned and would be ahead of most developing countries.
In Asia, Angara noted that only India has used direct recording electronic machines, the same type of equipment used in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to computerize elections in August 2008 as he pointed out:
“I believe this is imperative in order to respond to the crying need of our people – credibility of elections and legitimacy of leadership.”
Retired Supreme Court justice Jose Melo, the chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) agreed as he welcomed the ratification of the bill by the Senate and the House, saying the Comelec can now proceed with bidding of the machines for use to automate the 2010 polls.
In particular, Melo stressed the approval was significant because it came before the House and the Senate are to take a month-long Lenten break starting March 6.
By April, the Comelec chairman said they expect to award the contracts to the winning bidders and distribute the 80,000 counting machines in the thousands of polling precincts nationwide.
Melo revealed that at least 11 companies have already shown interest in participating in the bidding for the machines, a process which he vowed would be “transparent.”
At the same time, he said the Comelec would start the six-month training of election inspectors and the voters’ education program.
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