INTRAMUROS, Manila — As of yesterday, 53 percent, or 45,649,329 ballots have been printed for this year's upcoming national and local elections (NLE) scheduled on May 12, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia made the announcement in a media briefing where he gave assurances that the printing of the 72 million total requirement for the midterm elections is right on schedule.

The remaining 26,448,091, the poll chief added, is expected to be completed by mid-March, or a month ahead of the original April 14 deadline, despite the almost three-week delay caused by court proceedings and the issuance of several temporary restraining orders (TROs) by the Supreme Court.

On another issue, Garcia disclosed that preparations for the elections were already 95 percent complete, including the training of teachers that will serve as members of electoral boards, as well as the support staff.
He attributed the good results in the preparations to the poll body's decision to utilize all four printing machines of the NPO augmented by two state-of-the-art printers provided by South Korean technology provider Miru.

"Our printing is very fast, but verification [of ballots] is slow. We hired 250 to 300 more verifiers to augment the existing 800 who are doing manual verification on each printed ballot to ensure quality and specifications compliance," he proudly stated.

In ending, Garcia cited that the resetting of the date of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliamentary polls from May 12 to Oct. 13, 2025, had given the Comelec leeway to implement production process adjustments.