The Commission on Elections (Comelec) could not be more candid when it admitted Tuesday that it may not be able to totally police its own ranks from engaging in electoral fraud should the automation of the 2010 synchronized national and local polls not push through.

This admission came in the wake of delays in the approval of Comelec's P11.3 billion proposed supplemental budget for automation which it believes would be the answer to perennial problems of massive electoral fraud.

Comelec chairman Jose Melo said that should Congress still fail to pass the proposed budget by April 2 the scenario is: full manual polls in 2010, instead of full automation.

Deliberations on the supplemental budget has been going on for three weeks now at the Lower House. It has passed the House Committee on Appropriations level. An impasse occurred however at the plenary debates.

“If we go manual all the way, buhay na naman ang syndicates sa Comelec! Ah I said as much! The operators in this kalokohan in the past will be very, very happy. Baka mabuhay na naman ang mga “Garci-type diyan. di ba? That is the great danger,” said Melo.

It may be remembered that the 2004 presidential elections came under fire for alleged massive cheating where no less than a sitting commissioner then - Virgilio Garcillano or “Garci” - was tagged as the brains.

Up to now, Comelec said it was still continuing to resolve pending electoral protests covering the 2007 polls supposedly brought about by the decades-old manual elections in the Philippines.

“Noong 2007 manual na congressional, mayor, governor, until now we’re resolving cases of this manual elections. Up to this very day!” said Comelec commissioner Rene Sarmiento.

Aside from fraud Comelec sees another problem in the proposal of lawmakers to automate the polls for national positions only such as the senatorial, vice-presidential and presidential races while going manual for local positions.

Comelec said it will be more costly, requiring more than the current budget proposal. It said it will technically be two separate elections happening at one time.

All 80,000 automated machine units for a nationwide automation will still be required and on top of that: twice the number of precincts both for manual and electronic voting, twice the number of board of election inspectors, twice the number of poll watchers, ballot boxes and even two types of ballots!

“Para sa ‘kin eh, it would be a tedious way of conducting elections. And you know we have to understand that the law, [Republic Act] 9369 says that elections for 2010 should be full automated nationwide,” said Melo.

Comelec is calling on Congress to pass the proposed budget. It said this should be done without precondition on the passage of a bill governing the conduct of the 2010 polls similar to a set of implementing rules and guidelines which lawmakers at the Lower House said Monday should be passed first before any centavo is released from the Comelec's proposed supplemental P11.3-billion budget.

Melo said it will take months to pass a new law which could delay automation preparations further.

For its part, election watchdogs Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and National Movement for Free Elections expressed their disappointment with the situation. The groups said these delays may be a tactic after all to go back to manual elections - where cheating has already been mastered by the pros.

“The more we are convinced that we have to go on very intensive voters’ education to show people why we should change the way we vote for many of us so that we get public officials whom we can trust who will look after the greater good and not just their self-interests,” said Ambassador Henrietta De Villa of PPCRV.