Comelec short of staff for Lapu-Lapu plebiscite

The Commission on Elections faces the problem of lack of personnel as it plans to hold the plebiscite for Lapu-Lapu City’s bid as a highly urbanized city simultaneously with the local and national May 14 elections.

Provincial Comelec director Lionel Marco Castillano yesterday said the board of election inspectors for the plebiscite has to be separate from the personnel for the local and national elections.

There are 742 precincts in Lapu-Lapu and each precinct needs a plebiscite committee composed of a chairman, a poll clerk and a third member.

The Comelec en banc has already approved the holding of the plebiscite for Lapu-Lapu as a highly urbanized city simultaneous with the elections this May 14.

Lapu-Lapu Comelec officer Ann Janette Lamban, in her letter to deputy executive director for operations Jose Tolentino Jr., recommended that the duties and functions of the plebiscite committee also be performed by the same board of inspectors conducting the elections.

She also said that the per diem of P1,000 for the services rendered in the day of the plebiscite also be given as additional fees to the board of inspectors conducting the elections.

She recommended that separate ballot boxes, one for the plebiscite votes and another for the election votes.

So far, according to Castillano the Comelec en banc has not yet acted their concerns.

"Pangita-an nalang gyud ni nato og pamaagi kung idayon gyud ang plebiscite og and regular elections," Castillano said.

The Lapu-Lapu government has appropriated P10 million for the activity.

Once a component city is converted into a highly-urbanized city, according to Presidential Proclamation 1222, salaries of its employees and officials will increase, but taxes will go up as well.

The police station will also no longer be under the Cebu Provincial Police Office.

Other benefits include additional fund allocation for maintenance and other operating expenses.

The city met the minimum annual income and population requirements of P50 million and 200,000, respectively. The city government asked the president through a resolution last April to declare Lapu-Lapu a highly-urbanized city.

The city’s income reached P603.47 million in 2005 and its population was recorded at 217,019 as of 2000. — Garry B. Lao/BRP