For Failure To Vote In Last Election: Polls seen to deprive 600T teachers of right to vote

CEBU, Philippines - About 600,000 public school teachers nationwide may be disenfranchised in the coming May 10 elections because their names have already been deleted from the list of voters for failure to vote in their precinct for the past elections.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said this is the concern of the teachers nationwide because of the new rules set by the Commission on Elections with regards to teachers serving in the polls.

Lapus explained that in the past elections, teachers serving the elections are allowed to vote in the precinct where they have a poll duty. However, because of the poll automation this coming May 10, this is not the situation anymore.

 This coming election, those who are having poll duty will be given 20 minutes by the Comelec to go to the precinct where they are a registered voter to cast their vote. Lapus said this is impractical considering the traffic problem in Metro Manila and other urban areas.

Aside from this, Lapus said those who have not been selected to serve in the coming elections may have already been deleted in the list of voters because they were serving in the previous elections and may mean they have failed to vote in their precinct.

Lapus said if the problem is not acted upon by the Comelec, he is worried that most of the teachers will be disenfranchised.

Lapus however said he already sent a letter to the Comelec last week asking to restore the teachers who have served in previous elections in the list of voters and to allow those who are serving in the coming election to vote where they are serving.

Lapus is hopeful that the Comelec en banc will consider his letter request when it meets next week. — Fred P. Languido/MEEV(FREEMAN NEWS)