Kabataan party-list on Wednesday questioned the constitutionality of the “No Bio, No Boto” campaign of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) before the Supreme Court, saying that it would deprive more than three million voters without biometrics data of their right to vote in the 2016 elections.
In a 32-page petition for certiorari and prohibition, Kabataan said biometrics validation and deactivation under Republic Act No. 10367 or “An Act Providing for Mandatory Biometrics Voter Registration” and its implementing regulations are an “unconstitutional substantial requirement imposed on the exercise of suffrage.”
“Biometrics validation gravely violates constitutional due process, applying the strict scrutiny test, as it is not poised as a compelling reason for state regulation and is an unreasonable deprivation of the right to suffrage,” the petition read.
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The petitioners, led by Kabataan Rep. Terry Ridon, said RA 10367 violates Section 1, Article V of the 1987 Constitution, which states that “[n]o literacy, property, or other substantive requirement shall be imposed on the exercise of suffrage.”
“In contravention of the above-stated constitutional provision, Republic Act No. 10367 and its implementing regulations imposed an additional substantive requirement for all voters, both old and new registrants, to submit [to] mandatory biometrics validation or risk being deactivated or removed precinct book of voters, thus effectively barring them from the exercise of their right to vote,” the petitioners said.
“Further egregious is the fact that voters with active records according to Republic Act No. 8189, the antecedent Voters Registration Law of 1996, comprise bulk of those who will be deactivated. The deactivation of registered voters qualified under Republic Act No. 8189 is incompatible with the tenet that laws with penal sanctions should apply prospectively and not retrospectively,” they added.
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The party-list also sought for the nullification of Comelec Resolution No. 9721 dated June 26, 2013, Resolution No. 9863 dated April 1, 2014, and Resolution No. 10013, all connected to the deactivation of voter registration records in next year’s polls, as mandated by RA No. 10367.
Citing official data from the poll body, Kabataan said only 3,599,906 registered voters have undergone biometrics procedure as of September 30, 2015 despite Comelec’s “No Bio, No Boto” campaign.
“It is thus apparent that over three million registered voters stand to illegally lose their right of suffrage in the May 9, 2016 national and local elections without the benefit of due process due to the implementation of an additional requirement that is patently unconstitutional,” the petitioners said.
READ: Initial count of voters without biometrics reaches 400,000 | Only 3.1M voters still without biometrics—Comelec
In October, Kabataan and other youth groups also filed a petition before the SC questioning Comelec’s October 31 deadline for voters’ registration. CDG