Comelec deputizes 5 agencies to survey voter sites

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has deputized five government agencies to check out prospective voting center sites for the May 10, 2010 elections.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the poll body has deputized the Department of Education (DepEd), the Telecommunications Office (Teloff), the Philippine Postal Corp. (PPC), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to conduct a nationwide survey of cities and towns.

He said the AFP and PNP would be providing security for the personnel while the DepEd will facilitate the conduct of survey in schools that would be used as voting precincts.

Jimenez explained the survey is to locate the sites that could ensure effective and uninterrupted transmission of election results from polling places to canvassing centers.

Comelec has also set Nov. 30 as the deadline for the filing of petitions or requests for transfer of polling places in next year’s elections.

Jimenez said the Comelec is expecting to receive more requests from voters or political parties for transfer of polling precincts due to security issues.

The PNP, for its part, said they are determined to ensure that next year’s electoral exercise would be peaceful and orderly.

PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa said they are set to implement the National Firearms Control Program (NFCP) aimed at dismantling the “infrastructure of terror and intimidation” of warlord-politicians.

“Rest assured the National Police, as the people’s protector, will do everything within its power to see to it that the people’s right to freely elect our leaders is never thwarted or their will subverted by anyone through intimidation and harassment,” Verzosa declared.

Verzosa said the NFCP would effectively control the proliferation of loose firearms during election period.

“The PNP wants to neutralize the two G’s of the election triumvirate of guns, goons and gold that promote a culture of violence, intimidation and cheating during elections and have undermined our nation’s democratic ideals,” Verzosa added.

Meanwhile, the Comelec has gone into full gear in preparation for next year’s general elections, highlighted by the country’s first automated and computerized election process.

The Supreme Court (SC) upheld the validity of the poll automation contract that signaled the Comelec to move on with preparations for the next year’s elections.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said he SC ruling upholding the legality of the P7.2-billion poll automation contract should convince lawmakers to drop all proposals for a new presidential succession law.

Pimentel said several lawmakers are trying to avoid a leadership vacuum by playing up the possibility of a failure of elections.

Pimentel said the SC has accepted the assurance of the implementers of the automation project and information technology experts that a failure of elections is unlikely to happen because there were adequate safeguards and fallback schemes to forestall such an extreme situation. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Aurea Calica