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Friday, December 29, 2006
Long wait, forms lack bug Comelec listup
By Rene H. Martel and Minerva B. Gerodias
CEBU CITY -- Saddled with defective machines and the lack of forms, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Cebu City and Province now has to cope with the huge number of people who want to beat the deadline for voters' registration.
The commission has been accepting applications for registration since 2005, but very few took the time to register until last Wednesday, when would-be voters overflowed to the streets outside the Comelec office at the WDC Building along Osmeña Blvd.
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Comelec offices will be open to accept registration only until 5 p.m. this Sunday, Dec. 31.
Seeing the crowd from the glass walls of his office nearby, Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama requested the public works department to close a portion of Osmeña Blvd. so authorities can have better control.
The applicants' line stretched up to the other side of the block, where debris from a building being constructed might fall on them.
Few forms
Rama wants to prevent accident and pickpockets from victimizing the applicants, who are also exposed to sun and rain.
In the province, poll offices have to take the initiative in addressing the shortage of registration forms, by having these photocopied.
Worse, 10 towns also have defective data capturing machines (DCMs).
Tudela, Poro and San Francisco of the Camotes group of islands, Danao City, Balamban, Dumanjug, Madridejos, Daanbantayan, Medellin and Toledo City had to suspend the registration until the Comelec Manila issued a resolution last Dec. 19 saying that offices with defective DCMs may continue to accept registration forms.
Cebu Provincial Election Supervisor Edwin Cadungog said the number of applicants for registration increased in December, especially during the school break, as most of the registrants are students and first-time voters.
Cebu City North District Election Officer Marchel Sarno noted that people have the habit of going to the Comelec office only at the last minute.
Emergency
Aside from the closing the road, Rama also asked for other services for the registrants, such as an Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation ambulance on standby and water from the Metro Cebu Water District.
Sarno was glad about Rama's initiative, especially since they were having a hard time controlling the people because of the large number.
Councilor Gerardo Carillo, chairman of the council committee on social services, was tasked to seek permission from Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Cebu City Engineering District Chief Nicomedes Leonor Jr. to close a portion of Osmeña Blvd., across the WDC building.
Osmeña Blvd. is a national road and is under DPWH's care.
Instead of lining up around the block where the Comelec office is, Rama wants applicants to use the road, which will be subdivided by railings that the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) will put up.
The railings will serve as guides for people on where to form their lines.
The City will also provide tents to shield the applicants from the sun or rain. Portable toilets will also be placed in the vicinity.
300 a day
Superintendent Mariano Natu-el of the Cebu City Police Office, for his part, promised to provide personnel to guard against pickpockets.
But beyond crowd control, authorities are facing the bigger problem of malfunctioning data capturing machines.
Sarno said his office only has two DCMs, and each can accommodate only 300 persons a day.
Last Wednesday, Sarno's office registered 540 applicants.
But Thursday, one device that records fingerprints bogged down so they were left with only one machine, reducing their capacity to 300 applicants.
South District Election Officer Leonel Marco Castillano, who is also Comelec's Central Visayas regional legal officer, said they also have only two machines.
At least 22 Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) inmates arrived and registered Thursday in Cebu City. Of the 22, 14 registered in the north district.
Shifts
Castillano explained that under the law, only those convicted with final judgments of more than one year have forfeited their right of suffrage.
He said the courts allowed 1,200 inmates to temporarily go out of the BBRC to register, but he doubts whether they can all be accommodated by Sunday.
While they process applications until 5 p.m., they often impose a cut-off time for accepting applications at 3 p.m. so those who just arrived will not be wasting their time.
"We'll only entertain those who are already lining up. Yesterday (Wednesday) we finished at 6:30 p.m.," said Sarno.
They also work in shifts so there will be no noon breaks.
Both Sarno and Castillano said that two data capturing machines per Cebu City district Comelec registrar are not enough.
But they can't do anything because the Comelec Manila anticipated that only five percent of the voting population will show up to register.
Inmates of the Cebu City Jail line up for registration with the Comelec, even as more people wait outside for their turn. Clearly, the Comelec can't match capacity to register with the demand of new voters to be enlisted.
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Davao. (December 29, 2006 issue)
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