More than 1.6M register for barangay, Sangguniang Kabataan elections

MANILA – More than 1.6 million Filipinos have registered to vote in the upcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) this October 30, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Tuesday.

“Hanggang kahapon po, 1,610,000, mga bago nating botante,” Commissioner George Garcia told TeleRadyo.

“Ito po ay sumobra na sa ating projection na 1.5 million,” he added.

(Up till yesterday, we had 1,610,000 new voters. This is more than our projected 1.5 million.)

This means about 92.6 million are expected to vote in the BSKE come October.

Garcia said, however, that more voters means they will have to ask the government for a bigger budget for the polls.

“Pag nadagdagan ang botante, madadagdagan ang guro na maglilingkod sa bawat presinto, madadagdagan ang presinto na atin pong io-operate sa araw ng eleksyon. Lahat ng election paraphernalia madadagdagan at siyempre dagdag din po ang balotang iimprenta natin,” he explained.

(When there are more voters, we need more teachers working at the precincts. We need to operate more precincts during the election. We need more election paraphernalia and we need to print more ballots.)

“Kami po ay manghihingi ng dagdag na P3 billion para po sa barangay and SK elections sa October 30,” he added.

(We will ask for P3 billion more for the barangay and SK elections come October 30).

The BSKE was originally set to be held in December 2022, but President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the proposed measure postponing it in October 2022.

• Marcos Jr. signs law postponing barangay, SK elections to 2023

--TeleRadyo, 7 February 2023