People line up as Comelec launches its Register Anywhere and the Special Register Anywhere Program at the Comelec Headquarters in Intramuros, Manila on February 12, 2024. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/FileMANILA -- The Commission on Elections plans to print 73 million ballots for next year's midterm elections. 

This volume of target ballots are going to be printed by the COMELEC through the National Printing Office from December 2024 to March 2025 using two HP machines provided by Miru Systems Company Limited, said NPO Director Rene Acosta.

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"Hindi lang naman dalawa yung makina na meron dito ang HP. Merong tatlo actually. Yung isa naka-standby for whatever contingencies, eto pa ring HP yung gagamitin namin. Pero in the extreme na may ganun pa ring problema since bago nga, meron naman kaming contingencies. Of course, it's a ballot printing. Hindi namin pwedeng gamitin na umaasa lang kami dito. We have contingencies with the COMELEC," Acosta said.

(HP doesn't only have two machines here. In fact, there are three. One is on standby for any contingencies, and we'll still use this HP. But in case of extreme situations where there are still problems, since it's new, we have contingencies in place. Of course, it's for ballot printing. We can't just rely solely on this. We have contingencies with COMELEC.)

The 70 million ballots are specifically designed for the actual national and local posts, while 2M are for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) elections, and the remaining 1M would be test ballots for COMELEC's voter's education activities, Garcia said.

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The number can still be increased depending on the final result of the Voter's Registration Program which will end on September 30, Garcia said.

On Tuesday, two giant HP printing machines arrived at the NPO which were immediately inspected by COMELEC officials led by Chairman George Erwin Garcia.

HP Category Manager for Asia Pacific Tony Paguirigan pointed out that the delivered printing machines are "first two units in Asia."

"Instead na apat na makina, dalawang makina na lang. Kasi itong makina na to, kaya niyang mag-produce ng up to 62M pages per month ng letter sized na balota," Paguirigan said.

(Instead of four machines, there are now only two. Because this machine can produce up to 62 million pages per month of letter-sized ballots.)

The two machines are being projected to produce up to 1M ballots per day.

These are part of Miru Systems Company Limited's P1.6B contracted price for the ballot printing requirements of next year's elections.

This is part of the bundled P17.988B contract price for the government's lease agreement for next year's polls with Miru Systems.

The machines have features that could reduce "human intervention" by 50 percent and ballots to be printed are "precinct specific," Garcia said.

"Ang ibig sabihin, yung balota na naka-assign sa 1A ay hindi pwedeng magamit sa precinct 2A. Gayundin po yung mga makina natin. Naka-precinct specific din po iyan," the Elections Chief pointed.

(What this means is that the ballot assigned to 1A cannot be used in precinct 2A. The same goes for our machines. They are also precinct-specific.)

"This is not about speeding up the printing of the ballots, but about the quality of the ballots that we will print," said Garcia, after checking on the two delivered machines.

(Hindi ito pabilisan ng pag-imprenta ng balota kundi yung quality nung mismong balota na ii-imprenta natin.)

VOTERS REGISTRATION ENDS ON SEPTEMBER 30

Garcia also reiterated his reminder to Filipinos 18 years old and above here and abroad to still take advantage of the ongoing Voter's Registration Program as this will end on September 30.

There will no longer be an extension of the two-year program because that will be followed by the October 13 hearing of the Election Registration Board, whose task is to scrutinize whether a voter application should be approved or disapproved, Garcia said.

A voter's application for one will be rejected by the COMELEC if someone opposes it, Garcia said.

"Kapag may nag-oppose lalo na may nagkwestyon sa kanyang Application for Registration, Transfer of Registration. O kaya naman wala siyang maipakita na valid ID, government-issued ID, o kaya naman ay napatunayan na yung kanyang naipakitang dokumento ay falsified document. O kaya naman.. hindi pala sya residente doon sa lugar na yan," said Garcia, enumerating the usual causes of a rejected voter's application.

(When someone opposes, especially if they question the person's Application for Registration, Transfer of Registration, or if they cannot present a valid ID, government-issued ID, or if it is proven that the document they presented is a falsified document, or if they are not actually a resident of that place.)

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