Continuing registration of new voters starts July 1

The registration of new voters will start on July 1.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Alfredo Benipayo said yesterday the continuing registration will be held until 120 days before the next elections in 2004.

Benipayo said he has asked the poll body’s education and information division (EID) to come up with a more effective information campaign on the registration of new voters.

"Maybe our EID will have to come out again with press releases on this (information campaign on the new continuing registration)," he said.

The old election primer will be revised to include information about continuing education, he added.

Benipayo said the poll body also plans to constitute a new election registration board to allow voters to register anytime with the various election officers.

During the same press conference, Benipayo warned Commissioner Luzviminda Tancangco that Congress will stop funding the election modernization program if she does not resign as chairwoman of the committee on modernization.

"Because Congress is afraid that what happened before will happen again," he said. "The modernization committee will have to be handled by me because that’s a very important committee. You know, I’m the chief executive officer. If anything goes wrong, I am blamed for it."

Benipayo said he can take away from Tancangco anytime the chairmanship of the committee on modernization because the law allows commissioners to exercise only quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative functions.

"Under the law, the administrative functions and the committees should be handled by the Comelec chairman and the directors," he said.

Benipayo said he would be issuing an order to strip commissioners of administrative functions and limit themselves to exercising quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative powers.

"The idea is the chief executive officer should take charge of the operations and the administrative functions assisted by various department heads and the directors," he said.

Benipayo said the poll body’s administrative functions should be handled by the chairman and the various department directors to allow the commissioners to focus on election protests and appeals to speed up their resolution.

"It’s difficult if you have commissioners taking charge of what the directors should be doing," he said. "Even the people in the field do not know whom they should obey. Sometimes they obey the directors and chairman, sometimes they obey the directors. This should not be done. I will rationalize this."

Benipayo said the directors of departments should chair the various committees of the poll body because they are the most experienced and knowledgeable about the job.

"The commissioners anyway have a lot to do already," he said. "The quasi-judicial function, that alone will occupy most of their time. The administration should be left with the chief executive officer and the directors, that’s the set up so there will be no confusion in the bureaucracy."

The commissioners will be allowed to supervise but not take charge of the departments, he added.