The Commission on Elections (Comelec) resumed printing nearly 72 million official ballots for the May 2025 national, local, and Bangsamoro parliamentary polls by dividing these between the National Printing Office (NPO) and its South Korean service provider, Miru Systems.

In a press conference, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said they are pressed for time for the May 12 polls.

"The contract states that all the ballots will have to be printed by Miru. If that is the case, we cannot guarantee that we will finish it by April 14," said Garcia.

"Because of this, we decided to partially terminate the contract (with Miru). We opted to divide the printing of the ballots for the 18 regions to nine each with Miru and NPO," he added.

Miru will print ballots for the National Capital Region, Cordillera Autonomous Region, Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, and Bicol Region, along with the Local Absentee Voting for a total of 36.24 million ballots.

NPO will print ballots for Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Negros Island Region, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, Soccsksargen, Caraga, and Bangsamoro for a total of 35.88 million ballots.

He said ballot printing operations will be conducted 24 hours with two 12-hour shifts daily.

"We aim to print at least 1.5 million ballots per day. If we can do more, the better," said Garcia.

Last January 6, Comelec began ballot printing at the NPO but on January 14, the poll body suspended it after the Supreme Court issued several temporary restraining orders against the Comelec and its decisions to disqualify or declare as nuisance several aspirants. DMS