CEBU CITY -- This city’s poll offices have run out of registration forms, prompting election officers to “borrow” 15,000 bond sheets from City Hall to avoid any disruption in the ongoing registration of voters.

The number of registrants continues to increase as the deadline for registration nears, and city officials had to close one lane of the road across the Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in the city to accommodate the large crowd gathering in front of the building.

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On Tuesday alone, around 2,000 voters were registered by the north district and south district poll offices.

The Comelec central office was “astounded” by the number of new voters, which reached 2.8 million as of Monday.

Comelec expects 800,000 more to register starting Tuesday until Saturday, the last day of the registration.

There will be no extension on the registration, which will end on October 31 at midnight.

Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said there is no one to blame for the long queue of registrants but themselves.

“Ang hirap kasi sa mga kababayan natin, nag-last minute registration (The problem with them is they register at the last minute),” he said.

The other political developments in the country include:

* Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero’s office announced Tuesday that he will make “an important political announcement” Wednesday morning at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City. It is a move that will likely end speculation about his political plans for 2010.

* Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said he is going to quit his post two weeks from now so he can concentrate on his campaign for president in next year’s elections.

* After more than a month of silence about his political plans, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Bayani Fernando announced that he will be pursuing his presidential bid in the 2010 elections as an independent candidate.

* The Comelec en banc affirmed the legality of the merger of Lakas-CMD and Kampi and denied the motion for reconsideration that Representative Jose de Venecia filed.

Also on Tuesday, James Jimenez, spokesperson of Comelec, said the volume of registrants surpassed their expectation and has, in fact, doubled in number.

In this city, lawyer Marchel Sarno, election officer for the north district, borrowed 30 reams of bond paper from City Hall and had the forms photocopied Tuesday to make sure the registration is not delayed because of the shortage of forms. Each ream has 500 sheets.

These will be returned next year, when City Hall releases the Election Reserve Fund intended for the local poll offices every election year, he said.

Lawyer Edwin Cadungog, election officer for the south district, said his office also ran out of registration forms and started to photocopy them so they will have enough for the 1,000 registrants they are expecting Wednesday.

Forms ran out because the Comelec central office sent a limited number of forms at the start of the registration in December last year, and also did not send enough for the replenishment sent every quarter.

Cadungog said the central office sent an equal number of forms to the poll offices in the cities nationwide, based on the average number of registrants for all poll offices indicated in their quarterly report.

The number of applicants for registration continued to increase as the October 31 deadline nears, with an increase of 100 voters every day since last Sunday.

In the south district poll office, roughly 700 voters were registered last Sunday, 800 last Monday and some 1,000 as of 8:30 Tuesday night.

In the north district office, up to 900 were registered last Monday, and close to 1,000 Tuesday night.

Because more and more people are showing up to register at the last minute, Sarno said they had to request City Hall for bond paper. Otherwise, the registration process Tuesday would have been disrupted.

“We borrowed some supplies, but we will return it as soon as we get the reserve fund. Anyway the local government is mandated to provide assistance to the local poll office every election year. We hope the funds will be released next year,” he continued.

The Election Reserve Fund is intended for the operations of the local poll office.

Fund

Cadungog said that based on a Commission on Audit rules, the fund will be used for the purchase of supplies for election-related activities, utilities and the construction of common poster areas and divisions in the polling precincts.

The expenses in transporting members of the Board of Election Inspectors will also be charged to the reserve fund.

In 2007, City Hall released P9 million for Comelec’s operations.

City Administrator Francisco Fernandez said that under the Local Government Code, the City is allowed to assist National Government agencies and constitutional bodies.

The City will appropriate a still undetermined amount for the Election Reserve Fund next year in the first supplemental budget, since it was not included in the proposed annual budget for 2010.

Because of the large crowd outside the WDC Building along Osmeña Blvd. where Comelec holds office, the City Traffic Operations Management closed one lane of the road to vehicular traffic.

Starting Tuesday until Thursday, the lane for downtown-bound vehicles will be closed to give way to tents that will provide shade to the registrants that are in the line.

On Friday and Saturday, the last day of the registration, both lanes in front of WDC Building will be closed to traffic, said City Councilor Augustus Pe Jr., chairman of the City Council committee on public order and safety.

Additional traffic enforcers and policemen will also be deployed to the area. (LCR of Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)