Cebuanos scramble for last day of registration

CEBUANOS who failed to register for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in Cebu City and Lapu-Lapu City will have to wait for an announcement of an extension from the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Otherwise, the Cebu City Comelec offices will prioritize only those who secured the application forms but were unable to register before the 5 p.m cutoff schedule, Comelec Cebu City south district officer Edwin Cadungog said.

“We’ll only accept registrants based on our capacity,” he said.

Today is the nationwide deadline for the registration of voters for the barangay and SK elections. In Cebu City, the cutoff time is 5 p.m.

The Cebu City south district election office accommodated 1,200 people per day while the north district registered 800 to 900 people yesterday.

Cadungog said they have registered 10,143 people as of Sunday.

The biggest number of registrants was 1,543 people last Sunday.

The line at the two Comelec offices at the WDC building stretched a block away across the Basilica yesterday.

Both Comelec offices only have four data capturing machines.

Cadungog said it usually takes five to seven minutes to fill up the registration form, have this verified and have the applicants picture taken by the data capture machine.

He said lining up consumes most of the time. Mayor Michael Rama called up city administrator Jose Marie Poblete to check on the preparations for the last day of registration which is expected to bring an even bigger crowd today.

In Mandaue City, the Comelec City office said they will extend the registration hours until 12 midnight.

They said they’ve served 1,000 registrants everyday more than half of whom are first-time voters.

Tents which house assistance centers were set up for each barangay.

Mandaue City election officer Fleur Gujilde said they’ve processed registrants until 9:30 p.m for the past few days.

In Lapu-Lapu City, the last three barangays will be processed today, said Lapu-Lapu City asst. election officer Benjie Dayondon. “We’ll base our processing on schedule to be fair to everyone,” he said. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac with Correspondents Carine M. Asutilla and Norman V. Mendoza