Jail management, poll body hold inmates’ registration

ONE-hundred fifty-eight inmates at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology’s (BJMP)-administered Zamboanga City Reformatory Center (ZCRC) have registered for the May 2013 elections, a top ZCRC official announced Tuesday.

ZCRC warden Chief Inspector Julius Arro said the registration of the inmates, which was held Monday, is in line with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Resolution 9371 promulgated on March 6, 2012.

Comelec Resolution 9371 states the “Rules and Regulations on Detainee Registration and Voting in Connection with the May 13, 2013 National and Local Elections and Subsequent Elections Thereafter.”

Arro said the registration of the inmates was made possible in partnership with the first district election office, which sent a team to conduct the registration.

The inmates were registered under the village of Zone I since it is where the ZCRC is located, which falls under this city’s first congressional district, Arro said.

He said the inmates passed the same procedures like any other registrants by filing up registration forms and their biometrics taken.

Monday’s registration of inmates was the second at the detention facility in Zamboanga City.

The first was held last June 18 wherein a total of 200 inmates have officially registered, said Arro.

The registration was held Monday so that they can focus on the inmates’ registration as well as ensure the security of the Comelec personnel since no visitors are allowed every Monday, Arro explained.

He said the first time the inmates at the ZCRC were allowed to cast their vote was during the May 2010 National election, when 300 inmate-voters casted their votes at the polling precinct inside the detention facility manned by Comelec Board of Election Inspectors.

The ZCRC will have a total of 500 voting population for the May 13, 2013 elections with the holding of the inmates’ registration at the detention facility, he said. (Bong Garcia)