COTABATO CITY, Philippines—The goal was to clean the voters’ list, but the first day of the general registration of voters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was characterized by the persistence of some irregularities.
In Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao, Henrietta de Villa, national chair the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), said she saw “young looking registrants” lining up and registering as voters.
“From the looks of it, they were not even 16 years old, very young talaga,”she said.
De Villa said she asked one of the registrants about his age, “and he paused, thinking, and said he was 20.”
“To avoid a commotion, I did not contest that. I can only observe, just like the registration officials,” she said, adding that people manning the voter registration machine at the registration center she visited told her that “they could not resist for security reason.”
“Even if they know these registrants were young, they just accept them and register them and subject the registration for validation later,” De Villa said.
“It is very frustrating,” she said, adding that what made it even more saddening “is that parents are now teaching young children to lie, and we are building a culture of dishonesty.”
Some of the young registrants who did not have birth certificates were accompanied by their parents who claimed that they were of voting age, which is 18.
In a school in Datu Odin Sinsuat, a girl first admitted to the Inquirer that she was 16 years old and that she was there to register as a voter. But her companion, upon hearing her, said, “Sir, she is already 18 and she just gave a wrong answer.”
De Villa said she also saw saw armed “tanod” or members of the village watch inside a registration center.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair Sixto Brillantes, who was in Zamboanga City Monday morning, said they expected to reduce the number of registered voters in the ARMM 1.7 million on the old voters lists to 1.1 million.
Brillantes, who left for Tawi-Tawi after holding a press briefing, admitted they were having problems with politicians meddling in the registration process.
“We are issuing a warning against these politicians disrupting the registration process. Some politicians are trying to prevent people from registering in some places,” he said.
He cited the towns of Datu Unsay and Barira in Maguindanao where politicians allegedly told election personnel to stop the registration.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said that in Lanao del Sur, “politicians bombarded our Comelec personnel with requests for re-clustering.”
“There were some pressures, too, on our people, warning our people that they were going to block people from registering,” Jimenez said.
But Brillantes said petitions for re-clustering of registration centers “will be denied.”
“We will proceed as planned and make adjustments later if needed. We will conduct evaluation in the middle of the 10-day registration,” he added.
Chief Superintendent Mario Avenido, the ARMM police chief, said close to 6,000 personnel from the military and police were deployed to secure the 10-day registration.
“Their focus is the security of the machines. One machine per 10 security personnel, and we have close to a thousand machines,” he said.
Avenido said they had yet to encounter security problems since the registration started Monday morning.
On Sunday evening, PPCRV volunteer Saida Caramudin was beaten up by four women when she refused to give them PPCRV t-shirts and identification cards in Parang town in Maguindanao, De Villa said.
“When she refused, explaining those shirts were intended for PPCRV volunteers, she was attacked and mauled,” De Villa said.
In Tawi-Tawi, Brillantes personally led the distribution of voter registration machines on Monday morning because of bad weather the previous day.
Maguinanao Election supervisor Udtog Tago said they decided to postpone the general list up in all villages of Datu Unsay town because of a power outage.
“We will officially start tomorrow (Tuesday),” Tago said.
“The Comelec was supposed to provide generators but these did not arrive on time,” he told reporters.
In Northern Kabuntalan town, also in Maguindanao, Mayor Ramil Dilangalen said four villages had yet to start the registration due to absence of power generators.
Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said each registration machine is accompanied by a power generator, but t Dilangalen said this was not so.
Despite all these, Brillantes said the first day of registration was “generally peaceful and we expect the situation to be this way until July 28.” (Reports from Edwin O. Fernandez, Julie S. Alipala, Charlie C. Señase and Dennis Jay Santos, Inquirer Mindanao)
Originally posted at 04:17 pm | Monday, July 09, 2012