BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
Some 1,690 of the 287,383 voters in Bacolod City have been purged from the list by the Commission on Elections for various reasons, City Comelec registrar Kathrina Trinio said yesterday.
Of that number, 639 are already dead, 171 have transferred to other areas, and the rest were either double or multiple registrations, or were also registered voters in other areas, Trinio said.
There were some who did not disclose that they were active voters in other areas, hence, Bacolod Comelec will treat them as new applicants.
Trinio also said there were voters who have been deactivated since 2019, after they failed to participate in two consecutive elections.
Former city Comelec registrar Mavil Majarucon-Sia earlier announced the deactivation of 42,000 voters, based on the rules specified under Section 27 of Republic Act 8189, or the Voters’ Registration Act of 1996.
Deactivated voters, new applicants, and voters, who are transferring to Bacolod, are now being attended to for reactivation and registration at the city Comelec from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Mondays to Thursdays, Trinio said, adding that they cater to at least a hundred individuals daily.
She said applicants and those who wish to be reactivated should bring their valid government issued identification cards indicating their address in the city, while registrants who are 19 years old and below should bring the original or photocopy of their birth certificates.
She said they are also registering those who are 17 years old but are turning 18 on or before May 9, 2022.
ONLINE APPOINTMENT
To avoid hassle and save time, the city Comelec is encouraging applicants to log-in at www.comelec.gov.ph to set their appointment so that they will be issued an application form that is QR coded.
Trinio said that those able to set an appointment online are assured of accommodation at the Comelec office since they have set up priority lanes for them and this will also minimize errors in data encoding.
She said that since the registration form generated online is QR coded, the Comelec personnel will just scan the code.
SATURDAY REGISTRATION
Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, meanwhile, announced that the weekend voter registration will start on Feb. 20.
“Here it is. Saturday registration 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting February 20. Bring your Valentine,” Guanzon said in a post on her Twitter account.
The voter registration resumed in September 2020 and will run until Sept. 30, 2021. The poll body has reported that it has, so far, received over 1.1 million applications, which is still far from its target of 4 million new registrants.*with report from PNA
