Prison votes: Rights group says they count
File photo of a jail facility in Quezon City under the supervision of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP). INQUIRER PHOTO /NINO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines—More than 90 percent of the population of jails supervised by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) is incarcerated for one reason—their cases are languishing in courts without decisions yet.
READ: BJMP says jail population congested by 400% in 2019
In a May 2021 report, the BJMP said there were 117,299 inmates in its facilities—105,742 are not yet sentenced. It consists of 94,098 males and 11,644 females.
Graphic by Ed Lustan
While in detention, however, prisoners’ rights groups said the inmates should not lose their right to vote.
The group Kapatid, an organization of detainees claiming wrongful incarceration, is asking the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to extend the period for voter registration for the 2022 elections to also give detainees the chance to “register and make a change.”
Fides Lim, spokesperson of Kapatid, said “it is important for inmates, especially those wrongly imprisoned for crimes they did not commit—the Philippines’ political prisoners—to register and have their votes counted in the 2022 elections.”
READ: Comelec exec hopes to discuss extension of voter registration with en banc
“Imprisonment does not disenfranchise them of their right to vote and to have a say in the outcome of the upcoming crucial presidential elections,” she said.
In the Philippines, the 1987 Constitution provides that Filipinos “who are at least 18 years of age, and who shall have resided in the Philippines for at least one year and in the place wherein they propose to vote for at least six months immediately preceding the election,” have the right to vote.
The Omnibus Election Code, however, prohibits the following from voting:
- Those sentenced with “final judgment” to be imprisoned for not less than a year
- Those who lost or renounced their citizenship
- Those found to be insane or incompetent as declared by competent authority
Chance to take part
Lim said the group received reports that in some BJMP facilities, Comelec registration forms were being distributed but because “prisons remain in continuing lockdown, the Comelec has to move the deadline of registration and also push voter education to draw in more detainees eligible to vote.”
Lawyer Rodel Taton, dean of the Graduate School of Law of the San Sebastian College-Recoletos in Manila, said extending the registration, especially for inmates, will give them the “chance to take part in the constitutional process of elections.”
He told INQUIRER.net that extending the registration period “gives equal chances even though temporarily, liberty is withheld from them (PDLs).”
Taton said “prisoners’ votes are worth counting” as their “voices matter as well,” emphasizing that “while they are deprived of their liberty, their case has not reached finality [and] their civil liberties are not extinguished.”
University of the Philippines Constitutional Law Professor John Molo told INQUIRER.net that when prisoners are still innocent before the law, “then we have an obligation to respect their rights.”
READ: Robredo calls on Comelec to extend voter registration to October
“If we can suspend procurement laws to allow billions to swish through, or lock people in their homes for months, moving a deadline by a few weeks is not the end of the world,” he said.
Respecting rights
In 2008, government offices, led by the Commission on Human Rights, said a provision of the Omnibus Election Code blocks inmates from registering and voting in the elections.
Section 155 states that “no polling place shall be located within the perimeter of or inside a military or police camp or reservation or within a prison compound.”
For the 2010 elections, however, 45,000 inmates had the chance to register and vote as the Comelec finally allowed them to take part in the process through “satellite registration and escorted voting.”
In 2012, the Comelec promulgated its Resolution No. 9371 to serve as the rules and regulations regarding the registration and voting of PDLs.
The resolution provided that the PDLs allowed to vote are the following:
- Those confined in jail, formally charged for any crime/s and awaiting/undergoing trial
- Those serving sentence of imprisonment for less than one year
- Those whose conviction is on appeal
In 2017, the rules on “continuous trial” of criminal cases took effect to expedite trial and resolution of cases but before its implementation, only 2.13 percent of case trials were finished in 180 days.
Two years later, the Supreme Court said courts are already 30.53 percent compliant in the following requirements:
- Arraignment and pre-trial of detainees within 10 days
- Arraignment and pre-trial of non-detainees within 30 days
- Trial should last for only 180 days
- Promulgation should be done within 90 days after the termination of the trial
Graphic by Ed Lustan
The resolution of the Comelec established special polling places (SPP) in prison facilities with inmates who registered as voters—one SPP for 50 to 100 inmates eligible to vote, two SPPs for 101 to 200, three SPPs for 201 to 300, four SPPs for 301 to 400 and five SPPs for 401 to 500.
If there are more than 500 inmates eligible to vote, one SPP “shall be established for every additional 100 qualified PDL voters.”
Former Comelec Commissioner Lui Guia said in 2013 that 44,000 inmates were registered voters, saying that the decision was a way to preserve their right to suffrage, a right protected by the Constitution.
In 2016, the year when 81 percent of registered voters took part in elections that led to the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, 42,252 inmates were eligible to vote.
In 2019, 43,700 inmates were expected to vote as the BJMP prepared 2,017 facilities for on-site voting of 40,491 inmates and 200 facilities for off-site voting of 2,833.
Making difference
Lim said the elections in 2022 could be “a make or break as our country’s fragile institutions take a beating as never before in the hands of a President who pretends to shun the onus of accountability and culpability for his manifold human rights violations.”
This makes every vote “worth counting,” including those in jail, especially those cast by political prisoners in the country.
According to data from Kapatid, there are 715 political prisoners in the Philippines—489 arrested since 2016.
Lim said this is a chance for voters to “make a change and let all those responsible especially for illegal arrests and plain murder be held accountable for crimes against humanity.”
She said about 74 percent of the country’s over 200,000 inmates are well qualified to vote as they are still under trial while there are also a number of those convicted whose cases are under appeal.
“There are over 148,000 votes out there in jail facilities, and count in the votes, too, of their eligible family members,” she said.
“If they can all cast their ballots in May 2022 and vote for ‘worthy’ candidates, along with their relatives, they can make a difference,” she added.
The BJMP told INQUIRER.net that there are 43,472 inmates who are registered voters as of Wednesday (Sept. 15)—3,916 of them recently registered for the 2022 elections.
Graphic by Ed Lustan
It said the there are five prison facilities with the most inmates eligible to vote – Manila City Jail (1,389), Cebu City Jail (1,138), Mandaue City Jail (1,031), Talisay City Jail (983), and Danao City Jail (805).
