Aloguinsan councilor "registered twice" in separate territories

CEBU, Philippines – Aloguinsan, Cebu Mayor Augustus Caesar Moreno yesterday filed criminal charges against a councilor, who he is a registered voter of both Aloguinsan and Cebu City.

Moreno was able to secure the registration papers of Marilou Mancia Ripdos, incumbent Aloguinsan municipal councilor.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) records supposedly supported Moreno's claim that Ripdos is a registered voter of Aloguinsan and Cebu City.

Ripdos was registered in Aloguinsan on November 9, 2003, using the first name Marilou and the birth date of March 31, 1964. In Cebu City, the date of registration was March 23, 2009, using the first name Ma. Lourdes and the birth date March 31, 1967.

According to Moreno, Ripdos violated Article XXII, Section 261 of the Omnibus Election Code.

Section 261 states that a person is guilty of an election offense if he "knowingly makes any false or untruthful statement relative to any of the data or information required in the application for registration."

The same section also prohibits a person "who, being a registered voter, registers anew without filing an application for cancellation of his previous registration."

Moreno said that it has come to his attention that Ripdos was one of the registrants who were discovered to have registered in another place without applying for the cancellation of their previous registration.

"I received information that Ms. Ripdos had registered in the City of Cebu on March 23, 2009, despite the fact that she had previously registered in the municipality of Aloguinsan last November 9, 2003 and which registration is still subsisting up to the present. In fact, she ran and won as a Sangguniang Bayan Member of the municipality of Aloguinsan in May 2010 elections," Moreno stated in his complaint.

Moreno said that he discovered the second registration of Ripdos through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) conducted by the Comelec.

He said despite Ripdos' "misrepresentations," the result of the AFIS which had a hit score of 99.99% as well as the "glaring similarities" of the other information that she declared in both applications for registration would show that Ma. Lourdes Mancia Ripdos and Marilou Mancia Ripdos are the same. (FREEMAN)