15 senators want ARMM voters’ list voided

MANILA, Philippines – Fifteen senators have filed a joint resolution seeking to nullify the existing book of voters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Joint Resolution No. 17 cited “bloated population figures” in the region indicating that the list of voters were “padded.” Data from the National Statistics Office showed that the ARMM population was only 3.3 million in 2010, not 4.1 million as recorded three years earlier, according to the resolution.

The resolution also noted that population growth in the ARMM was pegged at 5.46 percent (Maguindanao at 6.6 percent and Basilan at 6.44 percent) when the national figure was only 1.89 percent between 2000 and 2007.

“The practice of padding the book of voters has been resorted to by unscrupulous political leaders to perpetuate themselves in power and give them a sense of invincibility to commit unbridled abuses and anomalies,” according to the resolution.

“The anomaly in the ARMM has national ramification because these ‘ghosts,’ fictitious and double (some triple) registrants constitute the so-called ‘command votes’ or ‘controlled votes’ wielded by political warlords that could decide the winner, not only in local but most importantly the national elections.”

To allow the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to “immediately conduct a new general registration of voters” in the ARMM, the resolution sought to immediately suspend registration in other areas until Aug. 31 this year.