Presidential candidate and one of the country’s most productive lawmakers, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago caught the media’s attention after COMELEC revealed that in the printing of the ballots for the 2016 elections, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago’s political party had not been included.
The printing of the official ballots was temporarily stopped on Wednesday due to the incident. According to Genevieve Guevarra, he head of the poll body’s printing committee, explained to reporters that the missing of Santiago’s political party-People’s Reform Party-was discovered after the NPO had already printed 39 pieces of the ballot.
Due to the errors made in the first few hours of printing, the National Printing Office had to rush to the Comelec’s Sta. Rosa Laguna warehouse to correct the error on the ballot face.
The NPO also explained that the initial batch of printed ballots were not official ballots but the ones to be used in the final testing and sealing of the vote counting machines (VCMs), which is scheduled at least a week before the May 9 polls.
The National Printing Office officially started the printing of the official ballots on Monday, February 15, 2016.
