Got a tip? Send it to us at manila@coconuts.co.
The law is the law.
“Saying the Oct. 31, 2015 deadline for voters’ registration for the May 2016 elections violated the law, the Kabataan partylist on Thursday, October 29, asked the Supreme Court to stop implementation of two Comelec resolutions setting such period, and warned of millions being unfairly disfranchised from voting,” report Lira Dalangin-Fernandez and Brian Maglungsod on InterAksyon.com.
The report noted: “The urgent petition for certiorari and mandamus, with mandatory injunction, wants voters’ registration to run up to January 8, 2016. The group led by Representative Terry Ridon, said Resolution No. 9853 and Resolution No. 9981, which set the October 31 deadline, are of dubious legality.”
The petition cited Section 8 of the Voter’s Registration Act states, “The personal filing of application of registration of voters shall be conducted daily in the office of the Election Officer during regular office hours. No registration shall, however, be conducted during the period starting one hundred twenty days before a regular election and ninety days before a special election.”
Ridon further pointed out that the Supreme Court had already ruled earlier (in 2009) that the Comelec “cannot prematurely terminate the continuing registration of voters before the prohibitive period of election registration defined under the law – 120 days before the regular elections.”
That case being cited is Palatino v. Comelec (G.R. No. 189868), which ended up with the SC “declaring null and void the setting of the October 31, 2009 deadline for the May 10, 2010 elections, and directing the poll body to extend the voter registration period” up until 120 days before election day.
The report recalled that “last week, Comelec chairman Andres Bautista reiterated that the registration period would not be extended, even amid calls to give it a longer period following the onslaught of typhoon Lando in several provinces in the north and central Luzon.”
Ridon is had sent an urgent request to Comelec en banc to “extend the registration of voters and comply with the deadline set by law.” Still, he quipped, “However, we feel that Comelec will again act on this request halfheartedly, that is why we seek relief before the high tribunal today.”
