Comelec deputy director wants Pagadian plebiscite conducted after October polls

An official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has recommended that the poll body conduct the plebiscite ratifying the law converting Pagadian City into a highly-urbanized city (HUC) after the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) in October.

Comelec Deputy Executive Director for Operations Rafael Olano took into consideration the local government’s insufficient funds.

Olano made the recommendation to Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, the commissioner-in-charge for plebiscites, after Pagadian City Mayor Samuel S. Co requested the poll body to hold the plebiscite simultaneously with the 2023 BSKE.

“The circumstances obtaining in the Pagadian plebiscite such as the LGU’s lack of budget, the Mayor’s late request for synchronization, and the Commission’s lack of material time to initiate preparatory activities for the said plebiscite, are suggestive that it is more prudent to schedule its conduct after the October 30, 2023 BSKE,” Olano said in his two-page letter to Ferolino.

He added that the Comelec is “in the thick of preparations for other plebiscites already scheduled prior to the October 30, 2023 BSKE.”

In the letter, Olano mentioned that the recomputed budget for the plebiscite amounts to P78.482 million should it be synchronized with the 2023 BSKE. The original budget amounted to P106.901 million.

Mayor Co, in a letter dated September 29, 2022, requested the poll body to limit the participants in the plebiscite to voters in Pagadian City only to substantially reduce the estimated budget.

However, the Comelec Law Department rejected the request and cited Supreme Court decisions that ruled that plebiscites should be participated not only by the voters in the city that is proposed to be converted into an HUC but also by the voters of political units directly affected by such conversion, which in this case is the province where the city is part of.

Pagadian City is the capital of Zamboanga del Sur.

With this, Co sent another letter dated April 28, 2023, and requested to conduct the plebiscite simultaneously with the BSKE and proposed P8 million as LGU’s share in the budget.

In a Viber message to GMA News Online, Comelec spokesperson Rex Laudiangco confirmed Olano’s letter and explained that its content is a “mere recommendation” to the commissioner-in-charge which will eventually be tackled by the Commission en banc.

Laudiangco said that this recommendation is not a “new situation.”

“COMELEC had in the past held in abeyance the conduct of plebiscites and special elections to give priority to national and local elections, like the 2022 Presidential Elections and now, the 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections. We are now merely three months away from the BSKE and the COMELEC, including its partner agencies, must focus on and intently pursue the ongoing preparations thereon,” Laudiangco said.

“Further, expenses for plebiscites are shouldered by the proponent Local Government Unit and not by the COMELEC and in this instance, it appears that the Pagadian LGU does not have sufficient funds for the intended plebiscite, thereby giving more reason to not conduct the Pagadian Plebiscite and allow more time not only for COMELEC, but more so for the LGU to prepare for its conduct at a later date,” he added.

In 2021, former President Rodrigo Duterte issued Proclamation 1247 which provides for the conversion of Pagadian City into an HUC or highly-urbanized city.

The conversion will take effect upon ratification via plebiscite with qualified voters.