14 senators back new ARMM list-up

Fourteen senators expressed full support for a move to erase the entire list of voters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and hold a new registration to start massive reforms in the region that had become notorious for election fraud.

Voting 14-0, the senators passed on third reading Joint Resolution No. 17 that would void the book of voters in ARMM and direct the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to conduct a new registration.

The resolution is pending at a committee of the House of Representatives, which is expected to pass it in plenary on Wednesday.

The resolution, certified urgent by President Aquino, authorizes Comelec to suspend the general registration of voters outside ARMM for the entire July to speed up the relisting of voters in ARMM.

The National Statistics Office had found population figures in the ARMM, which is notorious for vote-padding and -shaving in national elections, to be bloated. In 2007, a 4.1 million population in the region was reported, but the NSO said in 2010 that the region had a population of just 3.3 million.

Past elections in ARMM had been marred by reports of ghost, fictitious and multiple registrants in the region, in effect constituting “command votes” in the control of political warlords that could decide local and national elections, according to the resolution.

Sen. Franklin Drilon, who cosponsored the resolution with Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, lauded the Senate vote, saying this would put an end to “fraud and irregularities” in the region, and spare it from the “ignominy of being billed the cheating capital” of the Philippines.

“This twin move will complete the roadmap of electoral and political reforms in the ARMM, which this government is presently pursuing with the help of Congress,” said Drilon.

“There will never be real elections and real democracy in the ARMM if these poll fraud, election dysfunction and padding of the book of voters were not decisively addressed,” he said.

Under the resolution, co-authored by 17 other senators, the amount for the new registration would be charged against the Comelec’s savings and any additional funds would be charged against contingent funds provided for by the 2012 General Appropriations Act.

The senators also voted 18-0 to approve on final reading Resolution No. 751 that ratifies a treaty on social security between the Philippines and Spain.

The ratification of the treaty would ensure that some 12,000 Filipinos working in Spain would be covered by social security benefits, said Sen. Loren Legarda, principal sponsor of the resolution.