The National Printing Office (NPO) will still be handling the printing of the official ballots to be used in the 2016 elections.
鈥淟et us be clear, the NPO will do the printing. That is provided for by law鈥� NPO seems interested. So, by law, they should do the printing,鈥� said Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Andres Bautista.
The Comelec issued the statement after some lawmakers questioned the poll body鈥檚 decision to bundle the ballot printing services with the bidding for the lease of the optical mark reader (OMR) machines. The OMR lease contract was eventually won by the Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Corp.
According to the provisions of the Omnibus Election Code, the official ballots and election returns are to be printed by the 鈥淕overnment Printing Office and/or the Central Bank printing facilities exclusively.鈥�
The Comelec, on the other hand, is tasked to 鈥渄etermine and provide the necessary security measures in the printing, storage and distribution鈥� of the ballots.
Compatible
Commissioner Christian Robert Lim explained that the bundling of the printing services with the OMR lease contract was aimed at ensuring that the paper that will be used for making the ballots is compatible with the voting machines.
鈥淲hen we bid it out, we didn鈥檛 know if there are certain types of paper, certain types of printing materials needed by the machines. That鈥檚 why we had the balllot printing bundled with the OMR bidding because we want the paper, we want the ballots to be extremely compatible with the machines,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e are assured that the paper will be of the exact specification for the optimal use of the OMRs,鈥� Lim added.
The bundling will also prevent the recurrence of 鈥渙ptical scan artifacts鈥� arising from the accumulation of paper fibers, Lim said, apparently referring to the appearance of digital lines in the ballots, which became an issue in the 2013 elections.
Lim, however, stressed that the terms of reference of the contract clearly indicated that the the winning bidder would still have to coordinate with either the NPO or the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as the law requires that NPO or the BSP be the ones to print the ballots.
鈥淚t is only when the NPO or the BSP issues the certification that they cannot handle the printing, that鈥檚 when we go out,鈥� Lim said.