The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will establish an Isolation Polling Place (IPP) in every voting center during the March 13 Palawan plebiscite as a precautionary measure amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Comelec Commissioner Antonio Kho said they deemed it necessary to set up the IPP to ensure the safety of voters.
"As a precautionary safety measure for the voters that will participate in the plebiscite, we deemed it necessary to set up the IPP so that we can ensure the safety of our voters," he said in a virtual press briefing Monday, March 1.
Glory Perez-Reyes of the Comelec - Office of the Deputy Executive Director for Operations (DEDO) explained that the IPP is for voters whose temperature exceeds 37.5 degrees or those who answered 'yes' to the COVID-19 symptoms in the health declaration form.
"They shall be evaluated by the medical personnel in each voting center. After evaluation, they shall be escorted to an isolation polling place, where they shall be allowed to cast their votes," she said.
In Resolution No. 10687, the Comelec said the IPPs shall be set up, as far as practicable, in one of the classrooms that is in a building separate from the other buildings of the voting center.
It added that if no such room is available, a makeshift/temporary IPP shall be built outside the voting center, which shall be strategically located near its entrance and the medical personnel deployed thereat.
The IPPs, the Comelec said, must also have an ample space capable of accommodating at least five voters, the Plebiscite Committee, and watchers at any given time.
The poll body originally scheduled the conduct of the plebiscite to ratify the division of the province of Palawan into Palawan del Norte, Palawan Oriental, and Palawan del Sur on May 11, 2020 in accordance with Republic Act No. 11259.
It was suspended in April 2020, due to the pandemic and the Enhanced Community Quarantine in Luzon.
The Comelec then set the plebiscite on March 13, 2021 following the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) approval of the proposal to already hold the exercise.