Comelec ready to register GMA as voter

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is prepared to administer the voter’s registration of Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who has been on hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said yesterday they now have plans on how to carry out a Sandiganayan order allowing Arroyo to apply for the re-activation of her voter’s registration. 

The poll body, however, has yet to set a schedule on when this will be done.

 “We have no problem with that. In the first place, they (Arroyo’s camp) will be shouldering the expenses and all we have to do is send an election officer and the document (to Veterans),” Brillantes said.

Arroyo had been dropped from the voter’s list in her hometown in Lubao, Pampanga after she failed to vote in last year’s midterm and barangay elections. She has been on hospital arrest at the Veterans since December 2011 on plunder charges.

The former President’s petition with the Sandiganbayan to be able to reactive her voter’s registration was granted early this month.

This will pave the way for her seeking her third and last term as Pampanga congresswoman in the 2016 polls.

The Sandiganbayan order stated that Lubao, Pampanga election officer Leonilo Paule Miguel, or a duly authorized representative, shall administer Arroyo’s registration.