by Dong de los Reyes August 18, 2022 Lucena City Commission on Elections officer Atty. Ana Mei S. Barbacena (Photo from Ms. Barbacena FB pag...
August 18, 2022
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| Lucena City Commission on Elections officer Atty. Ana Mei S. Barbacena (Photo from Ms. Barbacena FB page) |
LUCENA CITY - The three-week voter list-up that began in July for the December barangay polls saw enthusiastic response among new voters as they made the beeline in Comelec registration centers as early as 4 a.m. for inclusion in the Lucena City electorate.
Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of Cavite's 4th District stated that the committee is not deciding whether or not the upcoming elections should be canceled before addressing rescheduling.
The list-up saw an additional 5,000 new voters for the Sangguniang Kabataan and barangay elections slated for December 5 this year.
At a nationwide broadcast of Sentinel Times on Air over 101.5 Cool Radio simultaneously relayed by Facebook, Lucena City Commission on Elections officer Atty. Ana Mei S. Barbacena said the July 4-23 list-up saw an average 300 registrants daily.
Accommodating the flood-rush of registrants entailed assignment of satellite offices at Pacific Mall and SM Lucena since the city Comelec office wasn't big enough and did not have additional manpower to process registrants, she said.
Sangguniang Kabataan voters must be in the 15-30 age range, must present a photocopy of their birth certificate to confirm their age, and has to be a resident of the barangay for at least six months.
Regular voters must be 18 years old or more and be a resident of the barangay where s/he votes for at least a year, Barbacena added.
18-30-year old voters are to vote for both SK and barangay polls while 15-17-year olds are to vote solely for the SK, she noted.
Registration can be quite a time-consuming process, Barbacena said, since every registrant has to present a birth certificate, a valid ID (government, company, or school-issued ID), a barangay certification or a validation of registrant's identity by another resident.
Confirmation of these takes around five minutes or more per registrant- thus, accounting for the average 300 new voters processed each day.
As fillip to the process, a Comelec computer picture capture, finger printing, and inclusion of the voter's biometrics is added into the Comelec voter database.
Waiting for the national ID
Atty. Barbacena made it clear that Comelec dpes not accept residence certificate (cedula) or police clerance as prerequisite for voter identification and registration. NBI clearances are accepted, though.
She lamented that most barangay IDs they have ran into only had the person's name and a picture of the local barangay captain.
Per Comelec resolution no. 1798, a valid barangay ID must include the person's name, picture, address, birthdate, and signature.
She also clarified that Comelec is not issuing new voter IDs this year as they are also awaiting for the printing and release of national idenfication cards that has been met with delays.
As of December 2021, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that over 50 million Filipinos have registered for the National ID, reaching its benchmark goal for 2021.
As of June 2022, only 14.3 million cards have been distributed via the Philippine Postal Corp. (PHLPost).
In lieu of a voter ID, Comelec issued voter's certification sheet- of coupon bond-size which costs P75 each for voters 59 years old or under but is free of charge to seniors, PWDs, indigenous people, and single parents.
Running for barangay posts
Those seeking for SK and barangay posts can file with the Comelec their certificates of candidacy by October or November, she noted.
"COCs are received in good faith and it's up to the Comelec legal department to evaluate and establish ground for the disqualification of a candidate. If such grounds exist, the candidate is disqualified from seeking public office," she said.
Queried by show host Belly Otordoz about the Comelec go-ahead for the candidacy of the incumbent President despite a Sandiganbayan conviction for non-payment of P203-B real estate tax, Atty. Barbacena expressed a personal opinion that she doesn't know behind the Comelec junking of several disqualification bids against the former senator.
She mentioned that vaccinated or not, a voter can cast his vote. Too, Comelec has fitted out and will be installing a new isolation rooms for voters with apparent symptoms of Covid-19.
But even in the last national elections, there were no cases of voters showing such symptoms of the disease, she added.
"Vaccination is not a voter requirement," she stressed.
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