Balitanghali: (Part 4) January 7, 2025

GMA Integrated News

-4, sugatan sa salpukan ng motorsiklo at kolong-kolong sa Brgy. Gueguesangen   -INTERVIEW: GEORGE ERWIN GARCIA CHAIRMAN, COMELEC Pag-iimprenta sa official ballot, nagsimula na; target matapos hanggang gitna ng Abril/ Pag-iimprenta ng balota, itinuloy sa kabila ng mga nakabinbin pang disqualification case sa ilang kandidato       Balitanghali is the daily noontime newscast of GTV anchored by Raffy Tima and Connie Sison. It airs Mondays to Fridays at 11:00 AM (PHL Time). For more videos from Balitanghali, visit http://www.gmanews.tv/balitanghali.  #GMAIntegratedNews #GMANetwork #KapusoStream  Breaking news and stories from the Philippines and abroad: GMA Integrated News Portal: http://www.gmanews.tv Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gmanews TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gmanews Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gmanews Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/gmanews  GMA Network Kapuso programs on GMA Pinoy TV: https://gmapinoytv.com/subscribe

Transcript

00:00This is GMA Regional TV News.

00:06Four people were injured after a motorcycle collided with a car in Santa Barbara, Pangasinan.

00:13A small vehicle suddenly overtook the car in front of it.

00:18The motorcycle collided with another vehicle on the other lane of Barangay Gegesangin.

00:24The two drivers and their passengers were injured in various parts of the body.

00:29However, a meeting was held to settle the two cases.

00:41One hundred twenty-five days before the election in May,

00:44Comelec is already on Day 2 of printing balotas.

00:48We will talk to Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia.

00:52Good morning and welcome to Balitang Hali.

00:55Good morning Ma'am Connie and to our countrymen, good morning to you too.

00:59Yes sir, the target is to finish printing balotas by the middle of April.

01:03What is the scenario or challenge that Comelec may face so that balot printing will not finish on time?

01:12Although our machines are new, and this is a state of the art,

01:18but the two machines need to print at least 950,000 balotas or at least one million balotas every day.

01:28If this cannot be reached, we may not be able to comply with our April 14 timeline,

01:37which is to finish printing balotas.

01:39Secondly, Ma'am Connie, if our people are slow in manual verification of the balotas,

01:47and then the machine verification of the balotas,

01:51our countrymen should understand that the balotas,

01:55they will check if the size is correct, the color is correct, the names are correct,

02:01and then they will feed one by one to the machines,

02:05if we find out if they will accept or reject the machines.

02:08All right. What provinces are we printing first for now?

02:15For now, we are printing in Bangsamoro first,

02:18and the next is like Pag-asa Island in the Batanes area of Palawan,

02:25because it's too far.

02:27The strategy is to print the ones that are further away.

02:32The local absentee voting along with the overseas absentee voting will be finished last night.

02:40Okay. Once the printing is finished, where will you store and how will you secure the official printed balotas?

02:49All of them will be on standby in the National Printing Office because it's already secured there.

02:54After that, before it can be deployed to each province, each town and city,

02:59it will be placed in our warehouse.

03:01It's a very high security measure that we will implement to ensure that each balota is protected.

03:09After that, it will be delivered to different treasurers of each province, town and city.

03:17Under our law, the balotas and election paraphernalia are under the custody of the treasurers of each province, town and city.

03:27All right. You also continued the printing of balotas.

03:30How about the disqualification cases of some of our candidates?

03:37All of them that we disqualified as having a finality because they did not receive a restraining order,

03:43their names are no longer included in the balot cases that are being printed by Comelec.

03:49Those who are motioned for reconsideration because their cases are pending and the decision is not final,

03:55their names are likely to be included in the balotas.

03:58Whatever is pending in our highest court, I don't want to pre-empt or give pressure to our Supreme Court.

04:06Whatever the Supreme Court says, we will comply with their orders.

04:11Okay. The camera is urging to postpone the Bangsamoro elections next year.

04:17Is there a change in your preparations for this?

04:21Because we prioritized Bangsamoro as a signal that as far as the Comelec is concerned,

04:28even if there is a pending bill, we will continue our preparations.

04:32Whatever happens later on, that's a political decision.

04:36But as far as the Comelec is concerned, we cannot ignore the printing of balotas,

04:42especially the 2.2 million balotas for Bangsamoro.

04:46Okay. And what is the tightness that you will hide from the candidates that on Sunday, January 12,

04:52the election period has already started?

04:55Especially the incumbent officials of the local government or the national government.

05:01You know that the transfer of employees by the government is strictly prohibited.

05:07The transfer, promotion, appointment, and suspension of the commission elections is not allowed.

05:14That is a criminal case of imprisonment for up to six years and that is also a ground for disqualification.

05:22And of course, all the security guards, those who are detailed in providing security,

05:32we have a gun ban and we need to have an exemption.

05:36If not, aside from arresting all of them, we will also sue them.

05:43All right. Thank you very much, Chairman, for your time.

05:48Thank you very much, Connie. Long live.

05:50That was Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia.

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