MANILA, Philippines — “My name’s not on the list, not in the computer,’’ Undersecretary Abigail Valte tweeted Monday morning while lining up to cast her ballot in a public school in Makati City.
After exhorting Filipinos to exercise their right to suffrage on the eve of the vote, the deputy presidential spokesperson failed to exercise hers in Monday’s mid-term elections, one among thousands of disenfranchised voters.
The reason: her registration status was deactivated.
Valte turned up in a polling precinct at the Palanan Elementary School in Makati Monday morning, but was stumped to find her name wasn’t on the list of registered voters.
She checked with the Commission on Elections and was told that her registration status was deactivated because based on their records she skipped the 2007 barangay elections and 2010 presidential elections.
“Strange because I voted in 2010. They showed me a hard copy of a list with photos and the space for my signature/ thumbmark for 2010 was blank. I have no idea why that is. I voted in 2010; it was my first time because I only registered in 2009,’’ she said in a text message.
That was one less vote for the 12 handpicked senatorial candidates of President Aquino who was pushing for 12-0 sweep to muster a significant majority in the Senate in the second half of his term.
Over government radio Sunday noon, Valte repeatedly appealed to voters to “go out and exercise your right to suffrage.’’
On the eve of the vote, she said the police and military were prepared to ensure “peaceful, credible and honest elections.’’ But she said only the Comelec could say if everything was set for the automated elections.
Disenfranchisement was far from her mind.
“Sadly, yes,’’ she said on being one of the disenfranchised voters.
Valte said she’s now looking ahead to the 2016 presidential vote.
“The Comelec official told me there was nothing I could do except wait for the next period of registration and reactivation,’’ she said.
Valte drew sympathies from others, who were just as stumped as to why her name had suddenly disappeared from the Comelec list.
“Good that he had no problems voting,’’ she tweeted on learning that Aquino marveled that voting through the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines was much faster.
Aquino cast his ballot at the Central Azucarera Elementary School inside Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac Monday morning. He later monitored the conduct of the elections from Malacañang.
But Valte found consolation in the fact that her mother managed to vote.
“Good news is, I found my mom’s name and precinct number. At least one of us will be able to vote,’’ she tweeted.