(MB FILE PHOTO)
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) conducted a voter registration for persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) at the Manila City Jail Male Dormitory (MCJMD) in preparation for the next Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).
During the activity, Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia stressed the importance of the PDL’s right to vote: “Even if you are locked up, you still have the right, the right to vote."
"We are not talking about wealth or poverty, old or young, educated or uneducated, white or yellow.. You can only think of one thing, one ballot, one Filipino, we have the same ballot,’’ he added.
in the last voter registration, MCJMD Warden Supt. Lino M. Soriano said around 2,500 PDLs were registered.
In this year’s voter registration process, Soriano noted an additional 178 PDLs.
Soriano maintained that the initiative demonstrates the government’s commitment to an inclusive democracy and to protecting the right to vote, regardless of an individual’s circumstance.
Further, Soriano noted that the process empowers the PDLs to engage in shaping their communities through elections.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong’’ Marcos Jr. signed into law Republic Act (RA) 12232 postponing the BSKE from Dec. 2025 to the first Monday of Nov. 2026 with the imposition of new term limits of every four years thereafter for village and youth officials.