Comelec sets March 14 special polls for vacant House seat
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced on Wednesday that it will hold a special election on March 14 for a new district representative in Antipolo City following the death of Rep. Romeo Acop in December last year.
During a press briefing, Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia explained that the constitution requires the commission to hold a special election should a vacancy occur in Congress. The polls have to be conducted 60 days after the position was made vacant, but not later than 90 days.
Garcia said the decision to hold the polls was made without a declaration of a vacancy or call for a special election from the House of Representatives, as a previous Supreme Court decision had ruled that the Comelec may rely on news reports to know if there is a vacancy in Congress.
But Garcia clarified that he had written to Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy to inform him of the poll preparations and to also request for any possible assistance the House may extend to the poll body.
300K voters
The Comelec is now looking for the budget it needs to hold the elections, which is estimated to cost around P98 million, and Garcia said the poll body hopes to be able to tap the contingency fund of the Office of the President.
“The reason why the Comelec may have to spend that much for one election is because the second district of Antipolo has more or less 300,000 voters, the highest out of any district in the Philippines,” he said.
Under the 2026 General Appropriations Act, the Comelec only has an allocation of P11 million for special elections and the poll will have to be held manually, with Garcia noting that this is usually the case for special elections.
“It will not be an automated election. We do not have machines that we can use because we do not have the money to make a contract and we do not have time to have a procurement for an automated election,” he said.
He added that the Election Registration Board in Antipolo’s second district will be holding a meeting regarding the approval of applications for voter registration in order to finalize the number of precincts that will be used for the special polls.
“In the special election, those who can vote are those who were registered at the time of the conduct of the election,” Garcia explained.
Acop, a former police official before he joined politics, was known for his “tactical interrogation” during congressional inquiries. He died of a heart attack at the age of 78 on Dec. 20.
He was the one who noticed that an acknowledgement receipt for confidential expenses made by the office of Vice President Sara Duterte was signed by “Mary Grace Piattos”—a name similar to a restaurant and a potato chip brand.
