The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said that they are prepared for the conduct of five plebiscites to be held this year as the poll body continues its preparations for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections scheduled in December.
Comelec chairperson George Garcia reiterated that the poll body is ready whether the polls will push through or postponed.
“We have to proceed with the election, that is my personal opinion. I am always pro-election. If us at the Commission on Elections, if the Congress will ask if we are ready, our response is we are ready…
Either way, it will go ahead or not as long as the Commission on Elections is ready and that is our Constitutional Duty,” he said.
Garcia added that the Comelec is set to procure supplies for the conduct of the polls, as well training for those who will serve as election workers on 5 December.
Meantime, Comelec commissioner Aimee Ferolino said the preparations are not difficult since many people are already vaccinated and the threat are less compared before.
“It’s not difficult to do the plebiscite since the plebiscite we conducted in Palawan, we did it at the height of the pandemic. It’s a lot easier now when it comes to whether we’re ready since many people are vaccinated and the threat of Covid-19 is no longer that big compared before,” Ferolino said.
She explained that the plebiscites will not be conducted simultaneously and the preparations are one after the other.
“We will not do it all at once. We will do it one at a time, so the preparations will be one after the other. That is continuous, we have a timetable for every plebiscite that we will conduct and we already have several committees already in place,” Ferolino said.