Manila, Feb. 13 -- The Commission on Elections (Comelec) had already printed some 27 million official ballots since the start of the reprinting process late January.

Chairperson George Erwin Garcia said the Comelec has so far covered 37 percent of a total of 72,107,420 official ballots to be printed for the May 12 polls.

"As far as ballot printing is concerned, we are so far so good. We have been exceeding our daily target of ballots to be printed," he said during a press briefing at Amoranto Sports Complex in Quezon City on Thursday.

"By our estimates, we may be able to complete ballot printing around the second week to third week of March, the most by March 19, as long as the performance of the machines remains," he added.

The poll ...