Nearly 1 million purged from voters' list in Metro Manila

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has delisted nearly one million voters in Metro Manila as it continues to cleanse its list in time for the 2010 elections. Lawyer Michael Dioneda, regional election director for Metro Manila, said the 974,145 who were removed from the list were those who had failed to vote in the last two elections. “The deactivated registered voters are those that have failed to vote during the May 2007 mid-term elections and in the Barangay and SK elections in October 2007," Dioneda said. The poll official said of the figure, 246,288 were from Quezon City; 245,437 from Manila; 106,664 from Caloocan; 98,327 from Pasig; and 67, 443 from Makati. Dioneda said they are now in the process of removing the names of those who were deceased from the active voters' list. He said this is being done in coordination with local civil registry offices. Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the deactivation of inactive voters from the list is part of the poll body's efforts to cleanse the voters' list. He added that deactivated voters would be immediately notified by mail so that they could apply for reactivation of their registration records in their local Comelec offices before the December 15, 2009 deadline. In late January, lawmakers prodded the Comelec to cleanse the voters' list before spending billions for the purchase of automated voting machines for the 2010 polls. A House panel eventually approved the proposed P11.3-billion supplemental budget for the automation of the upcoming national elections. Aside from automation, the P11.3-billion additional budget for the poll body passed by the Appropriations Committee will also be used for "cleansing" of the voters' list via mandatory biometric voter registration. The approved House Bill No. 5715 originally proposed the appropriation of a P11.3 billion supplemental budget for poll automation, but it was amended by the committee to include the motion of Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez to incorporate mandatory registration through the biometrics system. Under the biometric system, machines will cross-match the biometric data or fingerprints of a voter to verify his or her identity. During the hearing, Comelec chairman Jose Melo said 50 percent of voters or roughly 25 million Filipinos have yet to register using the mechanism. He said he would leave it to the lawmakers to determine the deadline for registering under the biometric system. He however said that voters may be overwhelmed by the committee's proposal to de-list even registered voters who fail to register under the new mechanism before December this year. - GMANews.TV