The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to comment on petition questioning its policy allowing inmates and detainees to vote in next year’s elections.
In a resolution, the high court gave Comelec 10 days upon receipt of the resolution to respond on the petition filed by lawyer Victor Aguinaldo.
Aguinaldo, in his petition said Comelec Resolution No. 9371 which provided for registration and voting of incarcerated persons violates the constitutional provision requiring a voter to be a resident of the city or municipality where he or she will vote.
The resolution, according to Aguinaldo, “has imperfections, inadequacies and deficiencies in its applications, and thus, creating uncertainties, loopholes, gaps and ambiguities in its provisions, application and/or implementation.” He said the resolution should be clarified or amended so that inmates from the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City and detainees in provincial, city and municipal jails nationwide to vote only for national elections.
He said incarceration is forced upon the inmates and detainees like former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., who are all detained while standing trial for plunder before the Sandiganbayan.
“Hence, the question as to whether or not such detainees can vote locally or only in the national elections arises for the simple reason that when the said detainees were transferred to the said facilities, their residence requirement is forced upon them and not voluntary.”
He added that allowing prisoners to vote, Petitioner argued that by letting the prisoners to vote would work for “injustice to those regular voters and to those absentee voters, such as the policemen and the media practitioners covering the elections.”
Aguinaldo, however, clarified that he does not intend to disenfranchise the inmates and detainees and only wanted to settle the matter into its proper perspective. IDL