MANILA, Philippines—The differently-abled and elderly voters may be spared from difficult tasks, such as climbing a flight of stairs to reach their designated precincts, when they cast their ballots two years from now.

Even detainees and those persons cramped in shelters and evacuation centers may just have a chance to exercise their right to vote in the 2010 elections.

As early as Wednesday, the Commission on Human Rights started to work for mechanisms in making sure that come May 2010 elections, the vulnerable sectors comprising 15 million to 20 million voters in the country would be given convenient access to the electoral process.

In a forum the commission hosted on Wednesday, CHR Chair Leila de Lima, a known election lawyer, identified six groups that often failed to participate in the elections due to "numerous situational and physical constraints"-- the people with disabilities, the elderly, detainees, internally displaced persons, the indigenous communities and the first-time voters.

"We are working this early so that the Commission on Elections would have time to consider our recommendations and adopt them through administrative policies," De Lima told reporters on Wednesday.

She added that opening up the electoral system to more Filipinos would be one way of ensuring good governance and fighting corruption.

"Allowing more people to participate will help in the election of right leaders, not of minority presidents and leaders," said De Lima.

The forum was attended by Comelec commissioner Rene Sarmiento, Senator Francis Escudero as chair of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and revision of laws, and lawyer Howard Calleja of the Task Force 2010.

The daylong activity also gathered representatives of the six sectors, who agreed to draw up schemes that would allow them to exercise their right to vote without inconvenience.

De Lima said the CHR would submit the recommendations to the Comelec in two month's time.

The proposals, she disclosed, would include simple matters such as the designation of voters with disabilities and the elderly to a convenient and accessible precinct.

During the May 2007 elections, this particular group decried the lack of facilities in polling places, De Lima pointed out.

"Some were even assigned to the third floor of polling precincts. Admittedly, there is no specific provision providing for a convenient place for handicapped voters," she said.

While "assisters" have been on hand in polling places to guide voters with disabilities, no aides help out the elderly, which accounts for 4.6 million of the total 88.57 million voters in the country.

De Lima said that 7.21 percent of elderly voters suffer some form of disability, ranging from low vision to blindness.

She said the CHR would also propose putting up special registration and precincts for internally displaced people (IDP), especially in Mindanao, and for the 95 percent of the jail population who have been detained without sentence yet.

Stressing the need for a special voting mechanism for the IDPs in the war-torn region, De Lima said people in evacuation centers might grow in number if the fighting between the military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front would continue in the next two years.

In a speech delivered to the assembly on Wednesday, Sarmiento admitted that the Comelec needed improvement in terms of institutionalizing special mechanisms that would allow vulnerable groups to cast their votes on election day.

"As for the internally displaced people, we have relied on the mechanism of transferring their registration but there are residency requirements that come into play," he pointed out.

He lamented that majority of voters in Mindanao did not have birth certificates, making it difficult for the Comelec to accurately determine the legitimate from the unauthorized voters.