Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes, who took over the helm of the Comelec only last year, expressed his desire to go back to private life before the 2016 presidential elections.
Brillantes said in jest that he” had aged a lot” since he  assumed the chairmanship of the of the poll body. Having been an election lawyer for 25 years, he said his last client will be the taumbayan  (the people).  
Chairman Brillantes last week  threatened to resign due to the  slashing of the poll body’s budget appropriations for next year by  the Department of Budget and Management  (DBM) from their original proposal of P24 billion to just P8 billion and even warned that the Comelec  might be forced to revert to manual voting or worse, postponement of next year’s election if the funding concerns of the poll body are not resolved soon. The Comelec will need at least P13 billion to conduct successful elections next year, Brillantes said.
DBM Secretary Butch Abad for his part, maintained that theP8-billion allocation plus the P5-billion savings of the Comelec  from the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) deal were enough to cover the expenses of next year’s elections. Abad claimed that P7 billion was allotted by the Comelec  for the purchase of 82,000 PCOS machines, out of which only P1.8 was paid. Brillantes denied having such savings,” we need to reconcile our figures, our budget department officials and them (DBM)”  Brillantes said.
President Aquino has decided to step in and schedule a meeting at Malacañang with both Brillantes and Abad this week to settle the issue. Aquino was earlier quoted as saying, “I am used to playing referee. We will talk to the two. It is our duty to ensure that the elections next year will be credible and peaceful. If there really is deficiency in funding, then it is our responsibility to find sources of funds.”
At the same forum, Brillantes also announced the resumption of voters registration nationwide starting Aug. 1. “I would like to call on all our qualified voters,  particularly those who were registered under the old system (before automation) to register anew and be validated under the new biometrics system  to avoid the possibility of being de-listed and create confusion come election time,” he added.