The Liberal Party will just have to bear that its standard bearer, Senator Benigno "Noynoy' Aquino III, will not be the first name in the order of candidates for presidential aspirants on the ballots, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Monday.

The poll body insisted that it could no longer change the face of the ballots even as the Liberal Party can send IT (information technology) experts to reformat the system to clear Vetellano Acosta's name from the list.

“This is the reason we are inviting them to visit the NPO (National Printing Office) so they will understand the process. And if they have queries, they should come to us to discuss the matter,” Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said in an interview.

Aquino's camp has insisted that Acosta's name be removed from the ballots following his disqualification last week but the Comelec has thumbed down the request. The poll body began printing the ballots for the automated elections last February 5 and will continue until April 25.

Acosta's disqualification would have meant that Aquino's name should now be on top of the list of presidential candidates. However, millions of ballots have already been printed with Acosta's name on it.

Aquino's party fears that the voters, who are first-timers in an automated election, might mistakenly shade the slot for the disqualified Acosta and not Aquino's.

Larrazabal said LP's proposal, which was only coursed through the media but not formally addressed to the Comelec, to reprint the ballots only showed that LP does not understand the whole process of the ballot-printing.

“We cannot change the ballot's face now; you cannot have different ballots for half of the country and a different one for the other half. We have to regenerate the ballot face, that will take a few days and we must stop the production of ballots,” the commissioner stressed.

Apart from time constraints, reprinting the nine million ballots would also require recalibration of the printing machines, which the poll body and NPO are not capable of, he added.

Asked what if someone still voted for Acosta on election day, Larrazabal said all the votes for him will be considered “stray” votes and will be disregarded.

The commission en banc declared Acosta of Kilusan ng Bagong Lipunan (KBL) a nuisance candidate, and cancelled his certificate of candidacy, on the basis that he will put the electoral process on mockery and he was not supported by his own party and partymates.