New Comelec office building not a luxury but a necessity –Garcia

The construction of a new Commission on Elections office building is not a “luxury” but a “necessity,” Comelec Chairperson Erwin Garcia said Monday.

Garcia added that the nine-story office building would lessen the commission’s expenses and would house their needed facilities including warehouses for the storage of their equipment.

The Comelec is currently renting various buildings, including several floors at the Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros which caught fire in July.

“Sa sobrang laki nito, pati warehouse kakasya. Napaka-strategic ng lugar na ito... katabi ng airport, malapit na rin po pier. Hopefully, doon sa ipapatayo namin building ay meron na rin kaming dormitory para sa aming mga kawani na galing sa iba’t ibang probinsya,” Garcia said in his speech during the inspection of the over two-hectare site where the building will be constructed.

(This is so big that a warehouse can fit in here. It is also in a strategic location… beside the airport, close to the pier. Hopefully, we can have an employees’ dormitory in the new building.)

“‘Natatandaan natin pag nagpa-file tayo ng candidacy, nangungupahan pa tayo sa PICC. ‘Pag meron kaming random manual audit nangungupahan kami sa ilang hotel para lang makapag-conduct…Samantalang base po sa plano, sa gabay ni Commissioner Rey Bulay at buong Commission en banc ay may sarili ng auditorium…Ibig sabihin, kumpleto na, nandun na lahat ‘yung kailangan namin,” he added.

(If we can recall, we always rent the PICC when we conduct the filing of candidacies. If we have random manual audits, we rent hotels but based on our plan, under the guidance of Commissioner Rey Bulay and the Comelec en banc, we will have our auditorium. It means, it is complete. Everything we need is there.)

“Hindi naman ito luho itong pagpapagawa ng building. Ito ay talagang necessity. Kailangang-kailangan lang talaga,” he added.

(The construction of the building is not a luxury but a much-needed necessity.)

Upon his reappointment last month, Garcia said he would push for the creation of the office building which costs around P8.2-billion.

Garcia, during the inspection, said the poll officials understood the state of the country’s economy and the need to address other issues. This caused them to prolong the period of the building’s construction from three to five years.

This will result in smaller allocations from the government fund, he said.

He is also requesting Congress to grant a Multi-Year Contractual Allocation to facilitate the continuous bidding of procurement for the facility's construction.

“Paulit-ulit ko mang sinasabi, meron na pong sariling building ang Office of the Ombudsman, ang Commission on Human Rights, ang Civil Service Commission, ang Commission on Audit, ito po’y mga constitutional bodies. Ang Comelec naman po’y isnag constitutional body rin. So, siguro naman po’y marapat din na magkaroon kami ng sarili naming tahanan,” said Garcia.

(I may be repetitive but other constitutional bodies like the Office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Human Rights, Civil Service Commission, and Commission on Audit have their buildings. The Comelec is a constitutional body too. I hope we can have our own home.) — DVM, GMA News