Comelec to hold offsite registration in zero COVID-19 areas

CEBU, Philippines —  The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be conducting satellite registration in the barangays now that the Cebu Province is under eased community restrictions, a move seen to gain more voters for the upcoming 2022 elections.

"But now I’ve been granting more and more satellite registration, because I am also requiring them to have satellite registration at least once a month, as long as makaadto ra sila sa barangay nga zero active case," Cebu provincial election supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano said.

Comelec previously admitted that it has more catching up to do when it comes to the voter's registration due to the Covid-19.

Last year, the Comelec had conducted satellite registration in towns and cities that had zero active cases for 14 days but it was not pushed through in areas that failed to record zero cases throughout 2020.

In fact, Castillano said, the Comelec had only conducted satellite registration in Badian town.

Now with the eased community restrictions, the Comelec made some adjustments in its satellite registration.

"Pero karon, giutro, naman sa Comelec kadtong mga barangay nga no active case, pwede na. In fact, usa na sa gipangayo ni Atty. Sarno sa Cebu City kay we have mountain barangay nga zero gyud na sa Covid. So karon pwede na na nila adtoon didto kaysa sila ang manaug," Castillano said.

"Why do Comelec still do this, it’s balancing between the new normal nga ang Comelec dili maoy mahimo nga venue for spread sa contamination," he explained.

The Comelec is projecting five percent increase in every registration period, but due to the pandemic, Castillano admitted that the number of registrants has not yet reached even one percent.

As to current records, Castillano said there are more voters that were delisted from the voter's list after they failed to vote twice.

Because also of the pandemic, the number of voters in the province has been affected since some of the voters in Cebu went to their home province and even transferred their registration there.

"Daghan pud gani ang nanguli og probinsya, di ba nag LSI, nagpa-transfer na pud to sila sa ilaha. So kana 5% di gyud na namo maabot because it is not normal times," Castillano said. — GMR (FREEMAN)