MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it is working with the energy sector to ensure uninterrupted power supply during the May 13 elections, even as it has contingency plans in case of brownouts.

“We are planning to conduct a final meeting with the energy sector just to make sure that by election time, we will have 100% power supply,” said Comelec Director Teopisto Elnas Jr in a press conference Friday, April 26. 

Elnas said the Comelec is addressing concerns in the face of recent brownouts as well as earthquakes that could have affected power supply.

The Comelec also has contingency plans in case of power outages. Back-up batteries for vote-counting machines (VCMs), for instance, can last up to 16 hours.

This means there is no reason for elections to stop even if there is a blackout. 

“Pero hindi lang maganda tingnan na VCM lang ang may ilaw, tapos the rest doon sa classroom madilim. So sinikap natin in coordination with the energy sector na talagang merong 100% power supply natin, kasi 100% gagabihin itong conduct ng elections,” Elnas said.

(But it’s not good to see that only the VCM has lights, and the rest of the classroom is dark. So we exerted effort in coordination with the energy sector to have 100% power supply, because the conduct of elections is 100% sure to last till the evening.)

The Comelec is now working double time in its election preparations. 

Elnas also announced  on Friday that the Comelec finished ballot printing for the May 13 polls. By May 4, the Comelec is expected to have dispatched official ballots to different municipal and city treasurers’ offices across the Philippines. – Rappler.com