City voter transferees asked to put off move

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama advised those who want to transfer their voter registration records to other barangays of the city to just wait for the next registration of voters to avoid contributing to the chaos at the offices of the Commission on Elections.

Rama said if it is not necessary to transfer the voters registration to other barangays, they should not insist to do it now because the Comelec will still continue accepting transferees after the October 28 Barangay and Sangunniang Kabataan elections.

Only 16,000 persons can be accepted for registration during the 10 days period until the end of the month in both Cebu City north and south district offices.

Cebu City north district election officer Marchel Sarno said his personnel were only able to process the documents of 789 new applicant voters and transferees last Monday and 805 the following day.

At the Comelec Cebu City south district there were also about 800 documents processed during the first day of the registration and 1,300 the following day.

According to Sarno they decided to impose a cut-off time in accepting applications from those who wanted to be registered or transferred to other barangays so that they can finish them at 5 p.m.

“Pero maabtan gihapon mi og alas siete sa gabii usahay kay dugay man mahuman,” said Sarno whose office only has four data capturing machines to get the image and fingerprints of the voter applicants.

The Comelec has nothing to do but to approve the applications for those who wish to transfer their voters’ registration records to other barangays if nobody contests the intention of the concerned persons.

The registration process for youths who want to be registered for the SK elections is less complicated compared to the process for new adult voters and the transferees.

However, Sarno said once these youths turn 18 years old they are again required to register as regular voters.   (FREEMAN)