Cabanatuan has 5,000 dead voters still in Comelec list

CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija – Dead voters might be able to “vote” in the 2016 synchronized national and local elections if taken advantage of by unscrupulous politicians unless the Commission on Elections does something about it.

          This after no less than 5,000 dead voters were found to be still in the voters list of the Comelec in the city which needs to be purged to ensure their names are not used in the coming polls.

          City election officer Leo Navarro said the deceased voters are now being removed from the list in the city’s 89 barangays. He said was a centenarian and 13 nonagenarians (aged 90 and above) who passed away between the period 2012 to 2014.

          “We are now in the process of verifying the list of dead voters and securing death certificates from relatives,” he said.

          Navarro said that the city civil registrar is also helping out identify the list of dead voters in the various barangays to help fast-track the cleansing process.

          The purging of the voters’ list is one of two major concerns of the Comelec which has also embarked on a barangay-based information campaign urging voters to update their records using the biometrics system eligibility requirement prescribed by law.

          Last month, the Nueva Ecija provincial office of the Comelec warned of a possible massive disenfranchisement of voters as more than 200,000 registered voters may lose their right to vote in the 2016 synchronized local and national elections over their failure to adopt the biometrics system.

          Lawyer Panfilo Doctor Jr., provincial election supervisor, said that based on latest records from the Commission on Elections provincial office, a total of 213,141 registered voters are still without or have incomplete biometrics and thus, are automatically disqualified to vote, representing  roughly 15 percent of the total number of registered voters in the province of 1,360,508.

          Of these, 63,116 voters are from this city or 27 percent of its total of 228,191.

          Navarro showed records of the dead in an initial 10 barangays namely Bagong Sikat, Bakero, Cruz Roja, Daang Sarile, Ibabao-bana, Lagare, Obrero, Pagas, Palagay and Talipapa.

In Palagay, centenarian Cesaria Catapu, is still in the list although she died on March 3,2013.

Others also in the list were Eufemia dela Cruz, 92, of Pagas who died on January 4; Matilde Reselva, 94, Agapito Suarez, 91, and Leonisa Maune, 93, who died on June 20,2012, December 8,2012 and September 3,2013, respectively, all of Daang Sarile; Tiburcio Aber, 90, Zenaida Estrella, 97, and Francisco Padua, 94, who died on February 3,2012, September 27,2012 and December 15,2013, respectively, all of Lagare;

Rufina Sangoyo, 90, (died May 3,2013) of Ibabao-bana; Catapu and Teodora Eugenio, 91 (died on August 17, 2012) of Palagay; Estanislao Azarcon, 93 and Alejandrina Hernandez, 94 (died on August 8,2012 and December 12, 2012, respectively) and Ambrocia Javillanar, 92 (died February 23,2012) of Cruz Roja).

The list showed there were 20 dead voters in Pagas, 33 in Lagare, 35 in Bagong sikat, 15 in Ibabao-bana, 16 in Talipapa, 22 in Palagay, 24 in Bakero, 39 in Cruz Roja and 10 in Obrero. (Manny Galvez)