Henrietta de Villa, chair of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting
. FILE PHOTO FROM COMELEC.GOV.PH PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—An election watchdog group has urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to put up satellite voter registration booths in parishes with large voting populations.
Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) chair Henrietta de Villa said more people would be able to register for the May 2016 elections if this was done on church premises since they go there to hear Mass every Sunday.
De Villa said it would also help if there were voter education drives in churches, like seminars and conferences, to emphasize the importance of voting for the country’s leaders.
“Registration is very important because it’s the first step in the electoral process. If you don’t register you can’t vote, you can’t exercise your right to suffrage,” she said in an interview.
De Villa said the PPCRV had identified sites in the National Capital Region (NCR) where satellite registration could be held.
“We will go by diocese. There is the archdiocese of Manila, and the dioceses of Cubao, Novaliches, Pasig and Parañaque. We will choose places in the dioceses to hold the satellite registration to ensure that many people will register,” she said.
“Our aim is not only to encourage people to register but to also use the registration to cleanse the computerized voters list of multi-registrants, underage registrants and even dead registrants through biometrics,” De Villa added.
Voter registration will start on May 6 and end on Oct. 31, 2015.
Meanwhile, the Comelec has acquired 500 more voter registration machines (VRM) to ensure the seamless resumption of voter registration next week.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the poll body had purchased new VRM units to augment their machines—numbering over 2,000—in time for the expected deluge of voters who would have their biometrics data captured.
“At the very least, we’ll have one VRM in every town or city … its deployment depends on the perceived need,” said Jimenez.
A VRM is a desktop computer equipped with a digital camera, fingerprint scanner and signature pad.
Registration administrators are ready for the resumption of registration on Tuesday, Jimenez said.