Senators Franklin Drilon and Aquilino Pimentel III. INQUIRER photo
MANILA, Philippines — There will be a new voters’ list for the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) by the end of 2012 after the Senate approved at the committee level a resolution annulling the original voters’ list and allowing the Commission on Elections to conduct a re-registration for a new one.
“Back to zero ang voters list ng ARMM [The ARMM voters’ list is back to zero] and in July, the Comelec has committed that it can do it [voters’ list] in 10 days and conduct a re-registration in the entire ARMM,” said Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III after his committee on electoral reforms and people’s participation and Senator Franklin Drilon’s finance gave their nod to Joint Resolution No. 17.
After the re-registration, the Comelec will conduct a verification of the voters and hopes to release a new voters’ list by Dec. 10, 2012.
“The Comelec is confident that by early December, we will have a new and official and final voters’ list in the entire ARMM region,” Pimentel said.
He added that the re-registration would be secured and guarded to prevent the enlistment of unqualified voters.
“This is part the process of reforming our electoral processes, at least we can say now that we will be freeing the people in ARMM, ARMM, from the grip of unscrupulous political leaders who were able to perpetuate themselves in power without the true mandate of the people through padded voters list,” Pimentel said.
Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said that they planned to purchase an additional 1018 voters’ registration machines (VRMs) to be deployed in the region in time for the re-registration from July 9 to 18.
Brillantes added that they were willing to suspend the registration of voters in the non-ARMM parts of Mindanao – regions 6, 7, and 8 – in the same month so that they could re-deploy some of their staff from the head office to augment the Comelec personnel in ARMM.
The proposal to nullify the ARMM voters’ list stemmed from the grave “padding” in the numbers of registered voters.
Pimentel said that there were 400,000 suspected unqualified or flying voters in ARMM.
The National Statistics Office also confirmed that there were discrepancies between the sketch maps and satellite images of the ARMM towns, Drilon said, adding that houses of residents in the sketch maps were missing in the satellite images.
Drilon also said that there were discrepancies in the population growth rate in ARMM, noting that in the years 2000 to 2007, the ARMM registered a population growth rate of 5.46 percent, exceeding the national population growth rate of 2.04 percent for the same period.
Drilon added that the ARMM also surpassed the numbers of high growth areas in Luzon (Cavite, Bulacan and Laguna) which only registered 4.59 percent growth, which could be attributed to the migration of new residents.
“But in ARMM, there is no growth rate that can compare to the growth rate of these provinces in Luzon; there is no migration, yet the growth rate in ARMM is higher than the national and even higher than the high growth areas in Luzon,” Drilon said.
“There is really reason to believe that the voters list in the ARMM areas are padded apart from the fact that this padded population growth is for purposes of higher IRA (Internal Revenue Allotment),” he added.
Meanwhile, Drilon noted the testimony of Department of Budget and Management Undersecretary Mario Relampagos that there is sufficient budget for the re-registration of voters in ARMM.
Drilon said that as of December 30, 2011, the Comelec has an overall savings of P4.733 billion, which includes the P462 million appropriated and authorized budget originally intended for the cancelled ARMM elections.
“So, there is sufficient funding in Comelec’s budget which would respond to the financial needs of the new registration. DBM Undersecretary Mario L. Relampagos confirmed that on the record first that it could be charged against the savings of the Comelec including but not limited to the savings realized from the postponement of the 2011 ARMM elections,” Drilon said.
He added that in the event that the available funds would be insufficient, the President’s contingent fund may also be tapped.
In an interview after the meeting, Pimentel said that they will discuss the Joint Resolution No. 17 during their plenary session on Tuesday while during the hearing, Drilon told Brillantes that they are targeting to approve it by the end of May.