Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia said that as of Tuesday, February 25, the National Printing Office (NPO) has already printed 45,649,329 ballots, or 63.32 percent of the 72 million total requirement for the midterm elections in May.
The remaining 26,448,091, he added, was expected to be completed by mid-March, or a month ahead of the original April 14 deadline.
Despite the almost three-week delay caused by court proceedings, Garcia said preparations for the May 12 elections were 95 percent complete, including the training of teachers that will serve as members of electoral boards, as well as support staff.
Garcia attributed the good results to the poll body’s decision to utilize all four printing machines of the NPO augmented by two state-of-the art printers provided by South Korean technology provider Miru.
“Our printing is very fast but verification [of ballots] is slow. We hired 250 to 300 more verifiers to augment the existing 800 who are doing manual verification on each printed ballot to ensure quality and specifications compliance,” he said.
Garcia added that the resetting of the date of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao parliamentary elections from May 12 to October 13, 2025 had given the Comelec leeway to implement production process adjustments.
