Inmates vote inside jails for first time

BOGO CITY, Cebu—For the first time, city inmates were able to exercise their right to suffrage inside the facility here.

At least 76 of the 120 inmates voted, starting at 8 a.m., when the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) arrived with the ballots. The rest are not registered voters in the city.

The filled up ballots were read and counted by the precinct count optical scan machine in the elementary school in Barangay Gairan, about 500 meters away.

Deputy jail warden Danilo Rodriguez said this was the first time the inmates were able to vote inside the city jail. In 2010, 46 inmates were brought by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to Gairan Elementary School to cast their votes.

A Commission on Elections (Comelec) resolution allows the BEIs to bring ballots to jails with more than 50 inmates registered as voters in their respective localities. Otherwise, they will be brought to the nearest poll precinct.

In Maasin City in Southern Leyte, at least 52 inmates cast their votes, said Marlon Abar, assistant jail warden.

In Cotabato City, voting was peaceful and orderly inside South Cotabato Rehabilitation and Detention Center.

Warden Felicito Gumapac said more than 600 inmates were thrilled to become first-time voters in six special precincts that the Comelec set up inside the jail compound in Koronadal City.

The voters were escorted out of their cells and placed in a holding area to await their turn to vote.

In Zamboanga City, 423 detainees of Zamboanga City Reformatory Center also cast their votes.

Rene Rodriguez, 22 , who is facing a murder charge, told the Inquirer that the inmates were taught how to vote. “They (jail guards) did not meddle with our choices,” he said. Chito O. Aragon and Jani Arnaiz, Inquirer Visayas; and Jeoffrey Maitem and Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao