THE office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Mandaue City will move to a new office to give better services to the public, especially the senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs).
Mayor Gabriel Luis Quisumbing said that the new Comelec office will be located on the ground floor of the Mandaue City Sports Complex.
The mayor inspected the new Mandaue Comelec office last Friday morning after he delivered his first Statement of Children’s Report.
The City Engineering Office is undertaking the renovation of the Comelec’s office, which is presently located at the second floor of the Mandaue City Sports Complex.
Quisumbing has been receiving reports and complaints that senior citizens and PWDs had difficulty going to the Comelec office because it is on the second floor.
“Since the voters registration is one of the requirements to access the financial assistance of the City Government, there have been cases where people in stretchers, even people in wheelchairs, have been carried up so they can avail themselves of the annual financial assistance,” he said.
The mayor also said that the stairs going to the Comelec office are steep.
This is the reason Quisumbing pushed for the transfer of the poll body’s office on the ground floor.
Cash aid
“We really wanted to make sure that the PWDs and senior citizens will not have a difficult time when they need to register,” he added.
There are nearly 25,000 senior citizens and roughly 6,000 PWDs in Mandaue.
The City provides an annual P6,000 cash assistance to the senior citizens and P2,000 cash assistance to the PWDs.
The City is not spending so much for the renovation of the Comelec’s office because the city engineers are using spare materials.
Quisumbing said that the new Comelec office is expected to be finished before the barangay elections next year.
“If the barangay election is in May, we hope that maybe we will be finished with it by January because even the files of Comelec will have to be transferred here,” he said.
Aside from creating a new office, the City will also construct ramps in the area so would-be voters will not have difficulty in going to the Comelec office to register. (FMG)