MANILA — The Commission on Elections on Friday started hauling some 6 million ballots for disposal from the National Printing Office in Quezon City to the Comelec warehouse in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

The ballots have to be destroyed as these excluded the names of aspirants whose disqualification from the May elections was prohibited by the Supreme Court this week.

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The Comelec said moving the ballots to Laguna would take 5 to 6 days.

On Friday, 3 pallets of around 200,000 ballots supposedly intended for Lanao del Sur and Basilan were loaded to a Comelec truck, with paper trimmings in a separate truck. 

Comelec spokesperson Atty. John Rex Laudiangco said it would take several truckloads of trips to transport the ballots as verification of the other ballots and full inventory were underway.

Verification entails having each ballot read by the automated counting machine to determine which ones are machine readable and segregating these from rejected ballots.

All ballots and paper trimmings will be safekept in the Comelec warehouse in Sta. Rosa to free up space at the NPO and to ensure no mix up of ballots that will be used on election day in the Biñan warehouse, which serves as the staging area for deployment. 

“Kailangan dalhin sa Sta. Rosa warehouse para po mahiwalay naman doon sa ibang good ballots na dadalhin natin sa Biñan dahil ang Biñan warehouse po yan ang staging area ng deployment ng Comelec. So para walang mix up, ihihiwalay po natin ang balota na hindi natin gagamitin,” Laudiangco said.

Laudiangco said the disposal of all ballots, good and rejected, as well as the ballot paper trimmings, would follow the rules and procedures of the National Archives of the Philippines.

Laudiangco said this would be done through direct melting of all paper materials in the dissolving solution for recycling as shredding and micro-shredding are no longer allowed under the Archives’ rules.

“Hindi po kasi basta-basta pwede mag-dispose lang ang Comelec na kami kami lang. Meron pong proseso. At kami po ay na-inform na ang dating proseso ng micoshredding ay hindi na uubra ngayon,” Laudiangco said.

“Ang gagawin natin ngayon sa lahat ng papel, lahat ng balota na ididispatsa, ay direkta po itong tutunawin sa isang solution, direct recycling po ito. So pagkatapos po nun, na natunaw na ang papel, talagang hindi na po magagamit yan.”

Alternative uses for the recycled paper will be later studied, he said.

The Comelec’s resident auditor and election watchdogs observed the process.

Meanwhile, the scheduled trusted build on Saturday will be postponed. Laudiangco said the change in the election management system to include the names of 5 candidates in the Supreme Court order would take time, on top of changes in the automated counting machine (ACM) and canvassing and consolidation system (CCS).

The Comelec said it hoped to conduct the trusted build process by Monday. 

“Extensive po ang changes and amendments sa election management system. Hindi po ito simpleng program lang natin magdadagdag ng pangalan na inaakala ng iba. Ang EMS po ng Comelec ay walang add feature. Ibig sabihin po nun, gustuhin man nating magdagdag hindi kami makakapagdagdag nang basta-basta,” Laudiangco said.

“Yung pinadadagdag na pangalan ng Korte Suprema nang lima, isang senatoriable, apat na local candidates, kailangang muna naming baguhin yung election management, lagyan siya ng add feature bago pa po kami makapagdagdag ng pangalan.”

The Comelec targets the generation of 1,667 ballot face templates by Tuesday, followed by serialization of ballots and the start of reprinting by the middle of next week.

Calibration, reconfiguration and testing of the printers of NPO that could be used to augment production was also done on Friday.