BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Eight people fainted, while a policeman suffered a broken arm during a stampede at the voters’ registration, for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, held at the BAYS Center Sunday.
Councilor Caesar Distrito disclosed this incident during a joint public hearing Monday at the Government Center, where a consultation with Comelec officials was also conducted particularly on the proposal to extend the registration of voters.
The stampede started when others who were issued priority numbers and were queuing outside the Center destroyed the gates and fences to get in, Distrito said.
Chief Inspector Levy Pangue, chief of Police Station 1, said one of his policemen had a broken arm when trying to control the crowd.
Distrito, chairman of the City Council committee on laws, ordinances and good government, said the city has requested the Comelec to extend its 10-day voters’ registration, which ended yesterday, so that many others will be accommodated.
Barangay officials present at the hearing said some of their constituents have to line up as early as 2 a.m. hoping to be registered, and Distrito said only 600 applicants in Bacolod can be accommodated per day and some have to bear the heat or the rain just to register.
Bacolod Election Officer Mavil Majarucon-Sia said her office can only accommodate 300 registrants, and that only one person was attending to those with disability, senior citizens and pregnant women. As of last Sunday, about 3,630 voters for the SK have registered, she said.
Refusing to register or accommodate them and extending the registration, is a violation of the Constitution, and a disenfranchisement of the voter, Distrito said, adding that it was the first time the Comelec limited the registration to 10 days only. In 2010, the registration was held for two months, said the councilor.
Sia said election officers in Negros Occidental were unanimous in objecting to the 10-day registration, and that they already wrote the regional director if an extension will be possible.
Comelec Commissioner Grace Padaca, however, in a phone interview yesterday with reporters covering the Capitol, said: “It is not the policy of the present Comelec to extend things like this.â€
She explained: “We are working on a calendar so we need to know the number of voters to prepare the ballots, how many teachers are needed to serve during the elections.â€
It would depend on the Comelec calendar if the extension is possible, Padaca said, adding that during an en banc session last Monday, they asked the Comelec’s Barangay Affairs Department to submit a recommendation if the calendar would allow it. (FREEMAN)