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House bill seeks absentee voting for journalists


Media practitioners assigned to cover events outside their places of registration on election day will be able to vote in advance once a bill in the House of Representatives is passed into law. Makati City Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr., himself a former newsman, on Wednesday filed House Bill 6622, which seeks to allow members of the media who will be out of their places of registration on election day to vote in advance. In his bill, Locsin noted that absentee voting is allowed for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police who are on duty on election day in places where they are not registered. "These laws, however, do not include the members of the media deployed all over the country to cover the conduct of Philippine elections for purposes of broadcasting to ensure transparency, integrity, and accountability among all political participants which ultimately protects the sanctity of the ballot," he said. Under his proposal, any media practitioner who is not in his or her place or registration on election day due to work purposes may vote in the city or municipality where he or she is assigned. The head of the media office should submit to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) the list of concerned media members 30 days before election day. "The members of the media qualified to vote in absentia may cast their vote in the office of the city or municipal election registrar where they are assigned on office hours one week before the election day," the proposed measure read. However, under the proposal, media members can only vote for the positions of president, vice-president, senators, and party-list representatives. The Comelec will be promulgate the necessary rules and regulations to implement the proposal. The Comelec had earlier said it would draft a resolution that would enable media practitioners to cast their ballots as absentee voters one month ahead of the scheduled elections. “There has been a clamor among journalists na hindi makaboto (who cannot vote)," said Comelec commissioner Lucenito Tagle. - GMANews.TV

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