Makati group calls on Comelec to cleanse voters' list

MANILA, Philippines - With less than a week to go before the deadline for the voter registration on Oct. 31, the Knights of Columbus-St. John of the Cross Makati Chapter called yesterday on Commission on Elections Chairman Jose Melo to spearhead a serious effort to rid the voters’ list of double registrations and “unqualified” voters.

Edna Batacan, the group’s lawyer, said there are cases of illegal settlers who have been relocated to Southville 1 in Cabuyao and Calauan, Laguna since 2006 but continue to be registered voters of Makati City “and have been voting in Makati during the past elections, in utter violation of the law.”

The Constitution states that voters must have resided for at least six months preceding the election in the place where they propose to vote.

Batacan said there should be no excuses why the voters’ list cannot be purged of these individuals. “With a padded voters’ list, unscrupulous election officers will have votes to sell to the highest bidders or, at the very least, leave the door wide open for flying voters,” she said.

She said the poll body must also deactivate the names of those who have failed to vote in two major elections, those who have adopted foreign citizenship, those who have been convicted by the courts, and those who are dead.

“A clean and honest electoral exercise should begin with a clean voters’ list,” Batacan said.