Comelec eyes bringing biometrics registration to voters in far-flung North Cotabato villages
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines – The Commission on Elections is mulling bringing the biometric registration of voters in the city’s far-flung barangay (villages) to allow qualified voters to list up or update their registration status, according to an election official here.
Diosdado Javier, Kidapawan City election officer, said there have been requests from qualified voters in far-flung villages to bring the biometric machines in their areas so they could update their election records or register.
“Many residents have asked us if we can visit their communities and hold a day-long list-up,” Javier said in a radio interview.
“However, matters like this should be decided by the Comelec en banc so I forwarded the request to Comelec Manila for appropriate action,” Javier said.
Aleng Alicia, a resident of Barangay Indangan, said the poll body should bring the registration to their villages, explaining it would be difficult for them to come to town due to the rough road condition and frequent rain.
“If it is not too much for the Comelec to do it, we shall appreciate it very much,” she said.
Alicia said that even if they got to the Comelec office to register, the office might not have electricity.
“What if there’s brownout, we have to come back the next day, how about our fare?” she asked.
Javier has revealed that his office has requested Comelec Manila to send generator sets so the list up could continue even during a power interruption.
“I already requested Comelec Manila to lend us one or two generator sets that we used during the 2013 election as back-up for the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines,” Javier said, adding that he was still waiting for a response.
The biometric registration, a process by which voters’ signature, picture and finger prints are captured by a computer unit, started this May and ends on October next year ahead of the 2016 national and local elections.
Javier said his office has been accommodating at least 50 registrants daily during regular days, when there was electricity.
Kidapawan City, home to the Mt. Apo geothermal power plants, has been experiencing daily power outages of two to four hours.
Despite the power interruption, Javier urged those who would turn 18 in May 2016 to register.
Javier’s office is open Sunday to Friday (note: Saturday is day off) to accommodate registrants, advising them to bring photo copies of their birth certificates.
Without giving figures, Javier said a large number of registered voters who failed to cast their votes in the last two elections must show up and update their Comelec records so they can participate in the 2016 election.
“No biometric registration, no voting even if they were already registered voters,” Javier stressed.
Javier explained that that this registration requirement would comply with Republic Act No. 10367 or “An Act Providing For Mandatory Biometrics Voter Registration.”
It requires old and new voters to undergo the modern biometrics technology for the photo capture, signature, finger printing of both thumb and index fingers using the computerized capturing machine.
Under the same biometrics law, those registered under the official list of voters who have no biometrics recording shall be removed from the list and may no longer qualify to vote in the 2016 national and local elections.
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