BJMP wants inmates included in local absentee voting

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) will push for the passage of a bill in Congress to qualify inmates as local absentee voters.

"We will lobby a bill next year to include detainees in the local absentee voting," BJMP head Rosendo Dial said at a media briefing in Intramuros, Manila this morning.

For the first time, Dial said selected inmates in city jails and detention facilities will be voting on May 10.

"They maybe deprived of freedom but they will have a right of suffrage come election day," Dial added.

He said BJMP personnel have been placed in red alert status since May 3 in preparation for the inmates’ participation in the polls.

Poll officer Erwin Caliba said a total of 14,739 prisoners will be escorted to the special polling precincts on May 10 to cast their votes.

But there will be no special polling centers in jails in Regions 2, 5 and in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, Caliba said.