TRO on ‘no bio’ perils polls–Comelec

THE COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) on Sunday said the temporary restraining order (TRO) the Supreme Court issued on the “no bio, no boto” policy has put the agency in “limbo,” fearing it may have to postpone the 2016 balloting if it fails to meet its targets in preparing for the elections.

“The TRO materially impacts our election preparations. Election management is difficult,” Comelec Chair Andres Bautista said in a text message to the Inquirer Sunday.

Bautista said the Comelec wished the Supreme Court had given it a chance to explain things before issuing the TRO, which barred it from immediately deactivating registered voters with no biometrics information.

“The problem is that we are now in limbo on what to do with the 2.4 million no bio voters. The project of precincts (the precinct assignment of voters) is scheduled on Dec. 15,” Bautista said.

He also questioned the timing of the issuance of the TRO. “The no bio, no boto campaign has been going on for one year and six months, why issue a TRO now?” he said.

In an interview over dzBB radio Sunday, Bautista said the TRO had a domino effect on the Comelec’s preparations for the 2016 elections.

“We are attending to a lot of things. When the voting machines arrive, we will be conducting a lot of tests and we will also finalize our election management system, the consolidation and counting system and the source code review,” he said.

“They are all related to each other so if you stop one, the rest of the things that we are doing [for the elections] will be affected,” he said.

Bautista said he would write to the Supreme Court to ask for the lifting of the TRO and also to illustrate how a ruling against the Comelec would create big problems for the 2016 elections.

“We are doing everything we can to meet our deadlines but if we cannot meet them, what can we do? We may have to postpone the elections. But that will be chaos,” he said.

The possibility of postponing the May 9 elections will depend on the extent of the TRO’s impact on the Comelec’s preparations, Bautista told the Inquirer later in a text message.

The Comelec’s “no bio, no boto” policy is anchored on Republic Act No. 10367, or the Mandatory Biometrics Registration Law of 2013. This requires registered voters to submit their biometrics data to the Comelec before being allowed to vote.

The TRO stemmed from a case filed by the Kabataan party-list group, which argued that the policy would disenfranchise more than 3 million registered voters who did not have biometric data at the Comelec.