MANILA, Philippines ? The Commission on Elections (Comelec) ordered its poll officers to ?manually cross out? from the computerized voters? list (CVL) individuals with multiple or double registration records ahead of the May 10 elections.

Under Comelec Resolution 8817 promulgated on April 5, ?all election officers are directed to manually cross out from the Election Day CVL, posted CVLs and supplemental list of voters the names of 704, 542 double or multiple registrants as previously ordered in Resolution 8791,? Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer told INQUIRER.net.

For the manual deletion of multiple registration records, election officers (EO) must indicate on top of the crossed-out name the annotation: ?Per Resolution 8791? followed by the EO's signature, the resolution stated.

?For the May elections, we have to make do with the manual crossing out of the double registrants from the CVL because the official deletion from the CVL would have to undergo hearings by the Election Registration Board (ERB) to be held after the May national elections,? said Ferrer.

INQUIRER.net reported that the National Capital Region has the highest number of multiple registrants at 156,133, followed by Cavite with 47,016; Davao del Sur, 34,557; Nueva Ecija, 32,030; Rizal province, 28,663; Cebu with 23,602; Laguna with 20,107; Pampanga 21,758; Negros Occidental, 18,800; Iloilo, 15,783; Pangasinan, 14,734; South Cotabato, 14,637; and Batangas, 13,413, according to Comelec records.

Quoting Comelec minute resolution 09-0696, Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said in another interview that the poll body would retain only the multiple registrant?s latest record if enlisted in a different district, city or municipality while those found to have multiple registrations in the same district, city or municipality would be allowed to vote using their original registration.

For double or multiple registrants with records found within the same district, city, municipality, their original registration shall prevail over subsequent registrations, the minute resolution stated.

All board of election inspectors (BEIs) are in turn mandated not to allow these multiple registered voters to cast their ballots in precincts where their records had been canceled, Sarmiento said.

?The purging of the voters' lists is to make sure that each voter can only vote once even if he or she has multiple records,? said Sarmiento.