Bautista: Mall voting lawful

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista gave assurance yesterday that the scrapped shopping mall voting is legal.

Bautista said they considered all the legal opinions and it had been discussed by the full commission in several meetings. 

“As a matter of fact, the en banc promulgated Resolution No. 10059 last Feb. 12 approving the conduct of mall voting in pre-selected malls nationwide for the May 9 national and local elections,” he noted.

On March 10, the full commission also promulgated Resolution No. 16-0152 authorizing Bautista to enter into a memo

a memorandum of agreement with participating malls.  

The resolution also noted the final data of established precincts, clustered precincts and registered voters whose polling places would be transferred to malls.

“We sought the approval of the en banc and made sure that we complied with all the requirements, like subjecting the proposed transfers to public hearings, attached to the said approval,” he added.

On Aug. 5, 2015, the Comelec law department had also issued a memorandum that the poll body is authorized by the 1987 Constitution to determine the location of polling precincts, subject to the qualifications and limitations set by the Omnibus Election Code and other election laws.

Bautista maintained there were also surveys that the people want it.

Despite all of these, however, the Comelec decided to scrap mall voting on Wednesday night after Commissioners Christian Robert Lim, Luie Guia and Arthur Lim withdrew their support for the project.

“We followed all the procedures. The only issue is the 45 days but we complied with it because (the resolution) was approved on March 10, which is 60 days. What they are saying is you have to transfer the voters 45 days before the elections,” he said.

According to Bautista, this does not happen in real life.

“The actual transfer occurs on the day of the election itself. This was the opinion of all our senior staff. I’m really disappointed because all we wanted to do is to enhance the voting experience. The ones who lose are the voters, including the senior citizens and the people with disability,” he added.