PERSONS deprived of Liberty (PDLs) in areas previously under modified enhanced community quarantine status may now register as voters for the May 2022 polls as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) allowed special list-up activities in jail facilities and/or detention centers starting today.
Voter registration period is set to end on September 30.
The Senate on Tuesday night adopted a resolution asking the Comelec to extend voters’ registration to October 31. Sen. Francis Pangilinan, sponsor of Senate Resolution No. 851, said the current deadline was set before the pandemic and “nobody could have anticipated how this public health emergency would severely impact our daily lives, let alone voter registration.”
Comelec deputy executive Teopisto Elnas, in a September 14 memorandum, said “special satellite registration (SSR) in jail facilities and/or detentions centers are now allowed.”
Comelec Resolution No. 10711 said the poll body aims to ensure electoral participation of members of vulnerable sectors, including PDLs, by setting up satellite registration in jails, among others.
Allowed to register in the SSR activities are those who are at least 18 years old on Election Day, May 9, 2022, and/or committed inside the jail facility or detention center for at least six months immediately preceding Election Day, and formally charged for any crime and awaiting or undergoing trial, serving sentence of imprisonment for less than one year, or whose conviction is on appeal.
Disqualified are PDLs sentenced by final judgment to imprisonment of not less than a year, and those with final judgment of having committed any crime involving disloyalty to the government, such as rebellion, insurrection, violation of the firearms laws, or any crime against national security.
The Comelec said SSRs will be held only when there are at least 50 qualified PDL registrants inside the jail facility or detention center, and the jail facility has zero COVID-19 case 14 days prior to the intended SSR.
SSRs may take place as long as five days depending on the number of qualified PDL registrants.
Pangilinan said voters were not able to register or renew their registration because of to COVID-19 lockdowns, lack of time and money to go to Comelec offices, and “some policemen manning the long lines discourage them to line up.”
He also said in previous elections since 2001, voter registration deadlines were set on or after October 31.
“The Supreme Court itself recognized the Comelec’s power to set the deadline of voter registration, so long as no registration may be done during the period starting 120 days before a regular election,” Pangilinan said. — With Raymond Africa
