THE House of Representatives has agreed in principle to approve the P11.3-billion supplemental budget for automated polls, but only if the Commission on Elections can prove before March 6 that it can execute the computerization plan.

House Speaker Prospero Nograles said if Comelec fails to satisfy the requirements imposed by the House, congressmen will go on a month-long recess after the deadline and the poll body cannot touch the P11.3-billion automation fund.

?It will be too late and the Comelec would be running out of time if it cannot submit its guidelines by March 6. Then, we would have no choice but to continue the manual elections,? Nograles said. The money will remain with the National Treasury if Comelec cannot comply, he added.

Doubts on the Comelec?s capability cropped up when the commission?s technical people could not give their assurance that full automation would be carried out.

Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco?s question on what contingencies they had prepared if there will be a breakdown in the computerized system went unanswered.

?The Comelec is telling us that the results of the elections would be issued from central headquarters down to the local level. What happens if the system in the central headquarters bogged down? What happens to the results of elections in the rest of the country?? Cojuangco asked.

Under the Comelec automation plan, P9 billion of the P11.3 billion would be utilized to procure 80,000 computer machines to be deployed nationwide. Five precincts would be clustered into one computer machine. The rest of the amount would be used to train 80,000 personnel to man and operate the computers. Christine F. Herrera