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)
