Comelec to remove 200 voters from list

CEBU, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Mandaue City is manually removing at least 200 voters from the list. It is expected to be completed tomorrow, Feb. 6.

Lawyer Anna Fleur Gujilde, Mandaue Election Officer IV, said those that will removed include voters who have passed away, has moved to another city or town, or have duplicate registrations.

“Ang purpose nato ani para dili siya kabotar diri (Mandaue City), unya mobotar sad siya sa kung asa siya na rehistro kay ni transfer ra diay siya,” said Gujilde.

Gujilde said that although the list of voters in the city has already been finalized in October 2024, the Comelec Mandaue still received letters in December and January informing them about voters who had transferred, passed away, or had duplicate registrations.

She added that when a voter transferred to another place, the concerned Comelec Office is tasked to inform Mandaue about it.

But since it was sent through the post office, there was a delay, and it did not arrive in time for October, which was the period for finalizing the list.

She added that Comelec Mandaue can only cross-out a voter if it receive a letter from its Comelec counterpart about a voter’s status.

“What we do since naa na ang list of voters ato nalang i-manually cross-out from the listahan para on election day they can still see the name but they can no longer vote kay na cross-out man nato,” said Gujilde.

Through the manual crossing out, the Comelec Mandaue head said that the teachers serving as part of the electoral board will also be informed that a voter is no longer eligible to vote in Mandaue City.

Gujilde also clarified that only those recorded in the Local Civil Registrar’s Office in Mandaue will be marked as deceased and manually removed from the list.

She said that this is why some people might say that a deceased person is still on the official list of voters. Gujilde explained that this is likely because the person had died outside Mandaue.

She said that the fact of death is reported to the Local Civil Registrar’s (LCR) Office in the place where the person passed away.

Gujilde clarified that the list of deceased individuals in the Comelec Mandaue comes solely from the LCR-Mandaue City.

“Limited ra mi sa listahan sa Mandaue, ang mga namatay sa Mandaue City, so mao ra na among ma cross-out nga namatay,” said Gujilde.

She said that if a person died in Cebu City, they have no way of knowing because the LCR Cebu City will only report to Comelec Cebu City.

“Since dili man botante didto (ang namatay) so dili pud siya ma cross out didto,” Gujilde explained.

However, there are circumstances in which a deceased person may be removed from the list.

Gujilde said that this can happen if a next of kin would report to the Comelec office that a registered voter in their family has passed away and would request for the person to be deleted from the record.

Gujilde also said that a person’s name can be deleted if they fail to vote twice, not because of death, but because they didn’t cast a vote on two occasions, even though the reason is that they had passed away.

“Ma delete gyud siya namo after two consecutive elections nga wala siya kabotar,” said Gujilde.

Based on the Statistical Report of Voters in the City of Mandaue, there are 236,668 voters for the upcoming 2025 National and Local Elections on May 12.

However, with the manual removal of voters, Gujilde said the number may decrease. — JG (FREEMAN)