Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Wednesday told the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to exert all efforts to accelerate its voter registration program, noting that the low turnout of voter registrants for the upcoming May 2022 elections is alarming.
(Senate of the Philippines / MANILA BULLETIN)
Drilon expressed his dissatisfaction on the number of voter registrants when he grilled Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino-Ampologuio over the matter, noting that it took about two hours before the commissioner was able to respond when asked about the number of voter registrants during the Commission on Appointments (CA) hearing.
“We have barely six months before the end of the registration. Unfortunately, the nominee cannot give us the correct figures we can rely on,” said Drilon, who was irked with the changing responses given by Ampoloquio.
“I am willing to support the nomination of the commissioner. But at the rate she is answering, I may rethink that,” Drilon pointed out.
Ampoloquio eventually told the CA panel that out of 7.2 million expected registrants, only 2 million—1.7 million new voters and 300,000 reactivated voters—have been registered so far.
She said the Comelec is also set to automatically register around 1.6 million Sanggunian Kabataan (SK) voters, leaving a significant 3.6 million who are yet to be registered until September this year.
Given the figures, Drilon urged the poll body to exhaust all means to provide qualified Filipinos the opportunity to register for next year’s election.
The Comelec, he said, should also realign its budget to procure more biometric scanners in order to expedite voters’ registration.
He said the poll body’s satellite voter registration can go faster if its manpower and equipment are also increased. He added the Comelec must use all its resources to be able to accommodate a large number of applicants per day.
“We are running out of time. The future of our country will be decided by next year and Comelec should ensure that more Filipinos will be able to participate in next year’s election,” Drilon said.
“The lack of sufficient biometric scanner slows down the registration,” he said, noting that there is only one biometric scanner per Comelec office.