Displaced folk in Zambo fail to vote

NOT LISTEDBadjao people who were displaced by the 2013 Moro rebel siege in Zamboanga City are confused after election inspectors at Zamboanga State College of Marines Sciences and Technology told them they could not vote because their names are not on the master list. JULIE S. ALIPALA/INQUIRER MINDANAO

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Hundreds of people displaced by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) siege in 2013 and occupying temporary houses in three sites in the village of Mampang here failed to vote yesterday as they could not find their names on the official list of voters.

Sauda Sana, 23, and Bandera Idjani, 70, both Badjao, said they were able to vote in 2013 but their names were no longer on the current master list of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). They were among those awaiting permanent houses at the Masepla “transitory site.”

Sana, who accompanied her grandmother to their election precinct at Zamboanga State College of Marines Sciences and Technology, told the Inquirer that when they last voted, she and her other relatives only presented their “cedula” or community tax certificates and identification cards as beneficiaries of the government’s cash transfer program for the poor.

Internally displaced

Gamal Hassan said he and the other “internally displaced persons (IDPs)” had pooled their resources to assist other families “so they can vote.” They tapped friends with vehicles to pick them up and bring them to the voting centers, only to find out that they could not vote, he said.

“The problem here now is they could not vote. They were able to vote before but with the absence of voters’ ID, they can no longer vote, we hope social workers can assist them,” Hassan said.

Darren Torres, local head coordinator of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), said he had received such reports of disenfranchisement of voters from their volunteers.

Stephen Roy Cañete, the city election officer, said that if the IDPs could not find their names on the master list, it was safe to say that they had no biometrics record. “They probably failed to update their records,” he said.

Doubtful claims

He said the claims that they voted in the last election were also doubtful.

“We cannot say that they really voted last election, we are using the election day computerized voters list, they probably failed to update their records,” Cañete said.

Torres said even those who had their biometrics taken also failed to find their names on the master list.

Thousands of people lost their homes during the siege in 2013, when government forces fought followers of MNLF founding chair Nur Misuari for more than three weeks.

The MNLF members said they went to the city to hold a rally in front of city hall, but the military contended that they really planned an invasion.