Funding for the Oct. 29 polls won't be a problem because the Department of Budget Management has already released the needed amount, Dennis Ausan, Western Visayas COMELEC regional director, said yesterday.

Everything will be shouldered by the COMELEC, except for information dissemination that can be acted on by local governments, he said. The honoraria for teachers on barangay elections duty will be P1,000 per day for a maximum of two days, plus an additional P500 for those serving precincts handling the Sangguniang Kabataan polls, too, Ausan said.

Ausan, who was in Bacolod City to meet with COMELEC personnel in Negros Occidental, said he was assured by provincial election supervisor Jessie Suarez that they are on track for the October polls.

Ausan said 1,900 additional ballot boxes needed by Negros Occidental for the polls have arrived and the printing of voters' lists is already in the final stages.

In the entire Western Visayas, there are no places officially classified as election areas of concern, he said.

Ausan said although the police have about 300 barangays in WV on their watch list they have not been classified as hotspots.

He said a COMELEC command conference with the police and Army is set Oct. 22 to determine if there is a need to classify some places as areas of concern during the Oct.29 polls.*CPG

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