PPCRV notes low turnout in PWD voters' registration

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines  – A leader of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) of the Diocese of Dumaguete has lamented over the apparently low turnout Saturday for the special national voters’ registration day for persons-with-disabilities (PWDs).

Monsignor Julius Heruela did the rounds Saturday at selected LGUs for an assessment on whether PWDs who were already either registered or new registrants had turned up for the special day as mandated by the Comelec.

While the Comelec-Negros Oriental, headed by Eddie Aba, has yet to release the total number of PWDs who registered or validated their information as voters, Heruela had gathered enough information on claims by some PWDs that they were not informed of this particular activity.

In the visits of Heruela and some PPCRV volunteers, they found that at least 15 PWDs had showed up at a temporary Comelec registration area in Dumaguete; three in Valencia town, seven in Dauin and none at Sibulan and San Jose. The Comelec office in Bacong town was already closed in the afternoon that day.

Dumaguete’s Comelec officer Carmencita Cañares said she and her personnel had to transfer their registration equipment, to include computers and biometrics machine, to an accessible area at the ground floor level. 

Some Comelec offices are located on the 2nd floor of a building such that it would be difficult for some PWDs to access into.

Provincial Social Welfare Officer Alice Legarde, on the same day, said she was not aware of the special registration day for PWDs otherwise she would have asked the federation and different associations of differently-abled to inform their members.

RJ Fontelo, the incoming president of the PWD Federation in Negros Oriental, lamented that it was “discrimination” on their part for not being informed about the day of PWD voters’ registration.

He said that had he known about it, he would have contacted the leaders of the different PWD associations in the province to register, although he promised he would still do the same while the Comelec continues to accept applications for registration.

Susan Rio, president of the San Jose PWD Association, also told Heruela that she and her colleagues were unaware of the special registration day, but she was confident that most of the PWDs in her town have already registered before and that others may still register in the coming days.

Heruela noted the need to improve the information and education campaign for voters in the coming months in preparation for the 2013 elections.  (FREEMAN)