SENATE Committee on Finance Francis G. Escudero is eyeing to slash the proposed P32.4-billion budget for the general elections next year.
If the budget is that big, elections are more expensive than the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) subsidy, Escudero said in Filipino on Friday.
“How much are we going to spend on the election in 2019? P36 billion, P40 billion; these are huge sums. It’s better to put it in education rather than in elections,” he said.
Malacañang is set to recommend a P15.6-billion budget for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for 2016, an election year when about 18,100 positions from the presidency down to town council seats are up for grabs.
Escudero said that for this year alone, the Comelec has a budget of P16. 8 billion, P12.6 billion of which will fund “preparatory activities” for the May 2016 general polls.
“So if you add this year’s expenditures of P16.8 billion and next year’s proposed budget of P15.6 billion, then you’re looking at a cost of almost P35 billion for just one election alone.”
He added the government is spending more to elect officials “every three years than transporting half-a- million people every day,” referring to the MRT system.
While details of the 2016 spending have to be submitted to Congress, Escudero said he has “advance information” on the approved budget ceiling of certain agencies.
“Actually, I was informed that the Comelec asked for P20.3 billion, but this was pared down by the DBM [Department of Budget and Management].”
Following the budgeting practice, the two recommended amounts will be presented side-by-side in the National Expenditure Program that President Aquino will reportedly submit to Congress on the day he delivers his sixth and final State of the Nation Address on July 27.
Escudero said the conduct of elections in the country has always been a “costly proposition.”
“Always, they span two fiscal years. So you allocate money a year before and on the year of the elections itself,” he said.
In 2012 Congress set aside P10 billion mostly for preparatory activities for the national elections slated the following year, but the Comelec spent P1 billion less than the authorized amount.
In 2013 during the midterm polls, P8.2 billion was included in general appropriations, but actual expenditures ballooned to P15.4 billion according to the “Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing” document that the DBM released last year.
“So the total cost of the elections held in 2013 was about P24 billion,” Escudero said. “And the one for 2016 appears to cost P8 billion more.”
He said this year’s budget of the Comelec includes P11.4 billion for the acquisition of various equipment like voting, or ballot-reading machines.
It also has P1.2 billion for voters’ registration that, under a recent law, requires a voter’s biometrics to be captured and stored in the Comelec database. The Comelec is projecting some 56.2 million qualified voters for the 2016 elections, up 4 percent from the 54 million registered voters as of September last year.
“The inflationary spike in election is worst and all I’m naming is the Comelec’s expense. Not included are the overall expenditures, those spent by other agencies of the government [and] those spent by candidates,” Escudero said.
The Bicolano solon said due to the spiraling cost of elections, “it is, perhaps, time for us to seek ways on how to reduce it.”
Escudero said “after the dust has settled,” he would move for a nonpartisan review and deeper introspection to find out whether the expenses are justified or there are other more effective ways to hold elections.