Comelec raises BPE ballot-shading threshold

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections has raised to 25 percent the ballot-shading threshold for the Bangsamoro parliamentary election (BPE) on Sept. 14, a move the Comelec said would ensure that all the votes would be counted.

“The Comelec en banc is recommending that, instead of the 15-percent threshold, we will now authorize a 25-percent threshold for the BPE as far as the shading is concerned. Now, even if our kababayans will just put a dot (on the area to be shaded), it will be read by all the machines,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia said yesterday.

Garcia said the Comelec would shift to oil-based pens to allow the ink to dry in a few seconds and use thicker paper for the ballots ­– adjustments that were made in response to previous calls.

“We are not saying that there were mistakes in the 2025 elections. What we are saying is that in an election, you continuously enhance or make improvements, and if these will work well, we will adopt these in the 2028 elections,” he added.

Meanwhile, Basilan Gov. Mujiv Hataman called on the leaders and officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to stop passing the blame for the failure in governance to previous Bangsamoro administrations.

Hataman, who served as Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor until the ARMM’s dissolution in 2019, said BARMM leaders should focus on addressing current challenges and deliver concrete solutions.

“Every time there’s a problem in BARMM, they pass the blame to the ARMM. It has been seven years since ARMM became defunct,” said Hataman, who served as ARMM governor until its disbandment in 2019.

In Cotabato City, thousands of BARMM residents participated in a rally yesterday to express support for multi-sector efforts to address corruption, nepotism and other problems in the region.

The rally speakers called on BARMM chief minister Abdulrauf Macacua to keep pushing forward his moral governance thrust to reboot the regional government. — John Unson