CLOSE to 400 employees of the Baguio City Government are inactive voters, according to lawyer John Paul Martin of the Commission on Elections (Comelec)-Baguio.
“Imagine, they are requiring the night market vendors and business owners to secure first certificates proving they are registered voters of Baguio but they themselves are not actually registered voters,” Martin said.
The Comelec official added employees may fear they may earn the ire of the politicians if they will learn they did not elect them. Because of this, Martin said they prefer not to register or vote and project themselves as neutral.
“Ang pangit tingnan na mismong mga taga-gobyerno na nagkakampanya ng pagbabago ay hindi pala rehistrado at hindi bomoboto,” Martin said.
(But it is not good to know that public servants campaigning for change are not after all registered and not voting.)
Martin discovered about it after he went to city hall and asked for lists of employees who are indigenous peoples so that he can update the data of Comelec.
Comelec is now accepting applications for registration, transfer of registration records, change/correction of entries in the registration record, reactivation of registration record, and reinstatement of name in the list of voters.
Application and updating of records will be done personally at the Office of the Election Officer of the city or municipality where the applicants reside from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays including holidays except on April 9 and 10, 2020 (Maundy Thursday and Good Friday), December 25, 2020 (Christmas Day), and April 1 and 2, 2021 (Maundy Thursday and Good Friday).
The registration period will run until September 30, 2021.
The Commission per Resolution No. 10635 decided to commence the resumption of voters this month instead of the July 6, 2019, in view of the postponement of the May 11, 2020 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections pursuant to Republic Act No. 8189.
Martin said they are going to extend offline registration at the Baguio City Hall.