Holding a plebiscite for a People’s Initiative to amend the Constitution through a Constituent Assembly would cost at least P23 billion, the Commission on Elections told the Senate on Tuesday.

Comelec chairperson George Garcia said the amount would impact on the government’s financial standing, thus it may not be prudent to hold a plebiscite from November this year until 2025.

Garcia was among the resource persons called by the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation to the hearing that looked into allegations the signature campaign for a PI was marred by the handing out of bribe money and other aid.

When asked if the P23 billion costing was accurate, Garcia answered in the affirmative, explaining, however, that the Comelec could not divert any of its funds for a PI.

On Monday, the Comelec said it had stopped all activities pertaining to the PI because it had to tweak the implementing rules and regulations of the law related to such an initiative.

He said the Comelec was given meager funds to prepare for the local and national elections in 2025.

The Comelec budget also excluded funding for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, he added.

“There was this Supreme Court decision which mandated the commission, directed the commission to conduct the SK by December of 2025, only five months after the conduct of the 2025 national and local elections,” Garcia said.

He noted that the Supreme Court’s final decision on the next BSKE election was released only “after the budget had been transmitted by the executive to the legislative branch.”

“So it’s a huge blessing that the P12 billion was returned to us, so we can use that for the preparations for these two elections in 2025,” he said.

Senator Risa Hontiveros asked: “If the verification and plebiscite for the PI will push through under the Comelec, how will it affect the poll body since the 2025 elections is nearing?”

Garcia responded that the Comelec was already operating in a “very limited space.”

“This is the opportunity of the Comelec to clarify. We cannot conduct any plebiscite in 2025. That’s a no-no, that’s a negative. We cannot conduct a plebiscite even by November or December of this year,” he said.

“Everyone should be able to understand that when you conduct a plebiscite or even a national, or even a local, election, you need such procedural processes for procurement,” he added.

Garcia said possible concerns should the PI plebiscite push through include the procurement of millions of pens and ballot papers to be used in the voting.

“You can only do that if the Comelec is able to declare — after a very tedious process — that indeed the 12 percent signatures were collected, as far as those who want to amend the Constitution are concerned, and number 2 is the 3 percent per legislative district,” he added.

Garcia said the Comelec has only a limited time to conduct a plebiscite.