SC nixes voter listing extension

THE SUPREME Court on Tuesday junked a petition seeking the extension of the deadline imposed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the registration of new voters for next year’s polls.

The Comelec welcomed the high court’s decision.

“While the Comelec has not yet received formal notice of the Supreme Court’s decision on the petition to extend the period of voter registration for the 2016 elections… needless to say, the Comelec agrees with the court’s ruling,” said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez.

The petitioners led by Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said that under the law the deadline of application for registration of voters should be on Jan. 8, 2016, which is 120 days before a regular election, and not Oct. 31, 2015, which is 69 days earlier than prescribed by law.

The Comelec, however, issued two resolutions fixing the deadline of application for registration of voters on Oct. 31, 2015, more than two months earlier than provided under Republic Act (RA) No. 8189 or the Voter’s Registration Act of 1996.

The petitioners said the Comelec deadline was unconstitutional for being a manifest usurpation of the legislative power of Congress and a violation of the system of continuing registration of voters under RA No. 8189.

Ridon and other student leaders had also filed a separate petition before the high court seeking to scrap Comelec’s resolution imposing a “no biometrics, no vote” policy.

TRO on policy

Last week, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order against the policy, which Ridon said would result in the disenfranchisement of some three million registered voters who failed to have their biometrics taken.

In its defense, the Comelec argued that it had the authority to fix the deadline for filing applications for registration and disagreed with petitioners on the import of the 120 day-period in RA No. 8189.

The poll body argued that the periods provided under the law were not the determining points for the last day to file applications for registration but rather they fix the minimum periods when registration is not allowed.

Comelec also pointed out that it had to set the deadline for filing of applications for registration on Oct. 31, 2015, otherwise its preparations for the May 2016 elections would be gravely prejudiced.

Supreme Court spokesperson Theodore Te said the high tribunal agreed with the Comelec that the 120-day period was not the reckoning point for determining the last day for filing of applications for registration because the law providing for the 120-day period only determines when registration is no longer allowed.

Affect timeline

Te said the law does not mandate that the period for registration should be up to that time.

“The court also agreed with Comelec that it is allowed to lengthen the periods of ‘no registration’ on account of administrative necessities and other exigencies,” he said.

Te added that according to the court, there were certain preelection acts that were dependent upon the completion of registration and that requiring the Comelec to extend the period for filing applications for registration would gravely affect its rigid and strict timeline.

Major changes to the Comelec’s timeline, such as an extension for filing applications, could no longer be permitted at this point without jeopardizing the entire preparation for the 2016 elections, according to the high court.

Sufficient time

“The court also noted that the Comelec had given voters sufficient time to file their applications for registration (from May 6, 2014 to Oct. 31, 2015) but these voters failed to do so for causes not attributable to the Comelec. Petitioners had not given any justifiable reason for failing to register within the prescribed period and also for waiting until the last minute to file their application,” Te said.

Reacting to the high court ruling, Ridon, a lawyer, said they were disappointed. With a report by Tina G. Santos