Extending voter registration only rewards dilly-dallying

The Commission on Elections is looking at the possibility of extending the registration of voters on prodding by the joint congressional oversight committee. The ongoing registration is scheduled to end on September 30 after a year of listing new voters, transferees, and reactivating delisted voters, etc.

The congressional oversight committee wants the listing extended by two weeks. The Comelec is looking at only one, saying a longer extension will disrupt its preparations for the May 2022 general elections. If I had my way, I will not grant any extension. Doing so only rewards those who do things at the last minute.

I can understand that things are hard during this pandemic. There are health protocols to observe, movement of people is restricted or limited and capacities for the convergence of people are down to safe minimums. Then there is prudence and personal concerns for one's own safety. You might call that survival instinct, or even outright fear.

But all that considered, it still does not detract from the fact that the registration period of one year is ample time for anyone to be listed or have his record straightened if that is really the intention or interest. To say that you cannot find a single day out of 365 days to list up is too feeble an excuse to justify the reward of an extension.

In all likelihood, the person who still could not find the time to list up despite having been given 365 days to do so may not be interested in having himself listed as a voter at all. Why waste the Comelec's precious time preparing for an important political exercise by kicking in an extension, whether by a week or two, when there is no guarantee the people for whom the extension is given will even turn up to register.

Remember that the sickness of the Filipino is to do the last-hour rush. Filipinos do not do things when they have all the time in the world. But when crunch time comes, they come in droves. By this time, now just days to deadline, things are getting pretty hectic on the registration front. It will still be pretty hectic in an extension. With that in mind, believe me, the hoped-for late registrants will still not meet expectations.

The concern of the congressional oversight committee is that while there are already roughly 62 million Filipinos registered voters, this is still short by some 11 million voters based on figures compiled by the Philippine Statistics Authority. According to the PSA, there are 73 million Filipinos who are qualified to vote.

The ideal situation is of course to have every qualified voter registered and then vote. But that is the point of view of the state, in recognition of every citizen's right to vote. That does not take into account the preference of the individual voter or would-be voter when it comes to exercising that right. There is no way of knowing exactly whether the citizen himself even cares to be listed, much less vote.

Who is to know if the 11 million qualified but still unregistered voters for whom an extension is being proposed represent a number who want nothing to do, for whatever reason, with the electoral process. What if the reason they have not listed up is because they actually do not want to vote, that maybe they no longer see any redeeming quality in our elections. If it is a waste of time for them, so would be any extension.