Girl Scouts join Comelec’s biometrics campaign

MANILA, Philippines - No bio, no boto.

That’s the cry of hundreds of Girl Scouts who marched yesterday to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in Intramuros, Manila to urge voters to undergo biometrics registration.

They carried placards showing their support for the Comelec’s biometrics campaign barely six weeks before the Oct. 31 deadline for registration.

The initiative will help “open the eyes” of the Girl Scouts, who are mostly not yet of voting age, to the significance of the right to suffrage, as well as make their families and relatives aware of the importance of biometrics in the upcoming elections, according to Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP) national president Susan Locsin.

“Just the simple act of girls carrying placards with ‘No Bio, No Boto’ goes a long way in reminding those around them of the need to register before the end of October this year,” she said. 

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista thanked the GSP for supporting its biometrics campaign.

“What they are doing now is very important because we all know that elections are the bedrock of democracy,” he said.

“Their campaign is vital at this crucial time when we are nearing the deadline of voter’s registration.” 

The Girl Scouts are the best people to encourage their parents and other family members to register or validate their registration so they could vote next year, Bautista said.

The advocacy capped the celebration of Girl Scout week this month.

The Girl Scouts will undertake several other activities, including coming up with creative and electronic cards to be sent to their family, relatives, friends who are of voting age and reminding them to validate their registration, Locsin said.

“These are just some of the many ways by which Girl Scouts contribute to nation building,” she said. 

They hope to instill in the minds of the Girl Scouts the importance of elections, GSP national executive director Maria Dolores Santiago said.

“Although they are not yet voters, they would know that voting is a right and an obligation of citizens,” she said. 

“When they reach voting age, at least they know their responsibility as good citizens.”

Educating youthful voters

An estimated 20 million youthful voters will be educated on next year’s polls.

For this purpose, election watchdog  Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) has tied up with Democracy Watch (DEMWATCH) to include the campaign “One Good Vote” in its school tours to make “voter’s education cascade faster to the younger generation.”

The sheer number of youthful voters could make a candidate win the presidency, according to PPCRV national chairman Henrietta de Villa.

“The United Nations definition for youth age is 18-34… or about 20 million,” she said.  “The 20 million is enough, you could elect the president who you feel will give us good governance.”

The youth make up 37 percent of the electorate or roughly about 20 million voters, according to Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista.

“President Aquino won in 2010 with just 15.8 million votes and the youth are 20 million, that is 75 percent of the youth, (if they) could choose a particular candidate then that could spell victory for a presidential hopeful,” he said.

As of now, the Comelec has no information on how many youthful voters actually go out and vote on election day, Bautista said.

DEMWATCH believes that the power of the youth must be harnessed, according to lead convenor Victor Andres Manhit.

“We believe that we need to harness the power of the sector that needs to be active to really demand a transparent, non partisan and free election,” he said.

An honest, free and transparent electoral process is needed because transparency creates legitimacy and legitimacy creates good governance in the long run, Manhit said.

“We also believe that in order to eradicate corruption in our country we start with electoral integrity… I personally believe that the mother of all corruption is electoral corruption,” he said. – Sheila Crisostomo, Evelyn Macairan