Pasig candidate’s home listed with flying voters

A re-electionist candidate for kagawad in the coming barangay elections has filed a petition with the Commission on Elections to cleanse the voters’ list in her Pasig district, after she found out that her own home had been listed as the address of 17 fake voters.

Newly-installed Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos’ promise to conduct a clean and credible barangay election on July 15 has been put to a test after a candidate for kagawad in Pasig City asked the poll body to delete alleged fictitious names listed in the list of voters of a precinct in Barangay Kapitolyo, Pasig City.

Thelma Dumpit-Murillo, news anchor of RMN News Manila and a re-electionist candidate for kagawad has asked the Comelec in a six-page petition filed last Tuesday to delete about 17 names from the list of voters of Precinct 646A of Barangay Kapitolyo on the ground that they are "fictitious names."

Murillo, through her lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, told the poll body that her address and apartment units at 11 Isabel Street, Barangay Kapitolyo, Pasig City were used as residential addresses of the said illegal registrants.

Murillo said that as owner of the said apartment units, "no such persons with such names ever lived or is presently residing in any of our apartment units, hence, the said 17 names listed in the list of voters with our residential address are clearly fictitious and should be deleted from the list of voters." Murillo also asked the Comelec that upon the filing of her petition, the Election Officer of District 1, Pasig City should be directed to investigate and verify the actual occupants of her apartment units and to make a report to the Comelec within 24 hours if such alleged fictitious names are residing in said address.

Macalintal said that "a favorable resolution of Murillo’s petition may serve as an eye opener for the Comelec to undertake immediate and appropriate actions to ensure a clean and updated voters’ database."

"It is very imperative that a systematic verification system and tamper-proof and counterfeit resistant identification cards for our voters be immediately implemented by the Comelec to prevent the anomaly of listing fictitious names and illegal registrants in the list of voters," Macalintal said.