THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) is bent on finding funds that will enable them to conduct the March 14 Antipolo City (Second District) special polls.
This was the assurance of Comelec Chairman George Garcia, who said they are prepared to find alternative ways to finance the special polls, which would cost them some P98 million.
"We will find additional funding to pay for the supplies, ballot printing, and the teachers' honoraria," said Garcia in an interview on Thursday, February 5, 2026.
"The Comelec will find a way to realign our funds or savings so that we can use them. We are short in funds but the election must be held at all costs," he added.
Last month, the Comelec said it would require P98,712,417.18 to fund the special polls for the election of the replacement of the late Antipolo City (Second District) Representative Romeo Acop.
However, the General Appropriations Act for Year 2026 provides the Comelec an allocation for the conduct of recall elections, special elections, referenda, initiatives, and plebiscites amounts of only P11,189,000 nationwide.
This prompted the Comelec to ask the Office of the President (OP) to help the former in the conduct of the March 14 special polls.
However, Garcia said they have been informed by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) that their request for additional funding is being denied.
"It is a very unfortunate development that we were not given the additional budget. We received a letter from the DBM saying that we will not be able to get the additional budget," he said.
"The funding allocated to the Comelec is P11 million. What we need is P98 million. No matter how we use mathematics, it would be very insufficient," added Garcia.
He said this is disappointing since the conduct of an electoral exercise should be a priority of the government.
"There are budgets that are used but leads to nothing. How come an election that only costs P98 million (is being denied)? Yes, it's a lot, but not compared to the billions that sometimes we don't actually see where they go to," said Garcia. (Anton Banal/SunStar Philippines)