Metro Manila mayors are recommending the halt of the conduct of voters' registration during the general community quarantine (GCQ), Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) General Manager Jose Arturo Garcia said on Tuesday.
He said that the Metro Manila Council (MMC)wants the voters' registration, which already started on Aug. 31, to be stopped and moved to a later date due to " health and safety" reasons.
The mayors want the registration to begin once the National Capital Region (NCR) is placed by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) under the less restrictive modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), Garcia said.
According to Garcia, MMDA Chairman Danilo Lim has written to the IATF and to the Commission on Elections(Comelec) about the recommendation of the Metro Manila mayors.
"Sumalat na si Chairman Danilo Lim sa IATF. Ang IATF naman sumulat na sa Comelec for approval. Comelec talaga masusunod diyan, Constitutional office iyan, eh (Chairman Danilo Lim already wrote a letter to the IATF about the recommendation. Then, the IATF wrote a letter regarding that to the Comelec for their approval. It is really up to the Comelec because they are a Constitutional office)," Garcia said.
He also said that the mayors fear that social distancing protocols might be breached as mass gathering is probable during the conduct of the voters' registration.
The MMDA general manager said that he was told by the Comelec that they will discuss the recommendation of the Metro Manila mayors.
"They received our letters already. I was told that they will discuss this tomorrow," he said.
The MMC, comprised of the 17 mayors in the metropolis, is the governing and policy-making body of the MMDA.