COMELEC registration opens today

CEBU, Philippines — Instead of three different forms, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) will be utilizing only one form to facilitate the application of transfer, reactivation, and registration of voters starting today.

Before, the forms are color-coded depending on the purpose of the applicant.

Provincial Election Supervisor Atty. Lionel Marco Castillano said that the agency changed its form for uniformity.

He said there are applicants who signed wrong forms which delays further the filing process.

"Usa pa, gi-change siya para dili na daghan og printahon," he said over the phone.

He further urged applicants to be honest especially if they are requesting for a voter transfer because the city and municipal COMELEC offices has no capacity to cross check the records of an existing voter.

He said that there have been multiple cases where a registered voter applied for 'new registration' in another local government unit instead of a 'transfer.'

In effect, this "misdeclaration" invalidates the new application because this is an instance of double registration. This will cause further inconvenience on the part of the voter.

"Ma-deny ang new application if existing voter na siya sa laing lugar and he applied (for a new voter registration) instead of filing for transfer," Castillano explained.

If convicted, double registrants may be imprisoned for one to six years or be fined with P12,000.

He clarified that the city or municipal level COMELEC offices do not have access to the database containing the full list of voters and their corresponding current voting precincts due to data privacy provisions and the high-risk of information leak.

Only the provincial level COMELEC offices can validate the applications and decide whether to accept or deny the application for transfer, correction, new registration.

This verification process is held few days after the last day of the filing of applications.

The voter’s registration resumes today and will end on September 29.

In Cebu Province, there are 1,203 barangays and 3,968,463 regular voters as of May 2018. (FREEMAN)