Comelec warns against fake IDs

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday urged the public to be careful of fake voters’ identification cards, following the discovery of two forged IDs in Pasig City recently.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said their field office in Pasig City had confiscated two falsified voters’ IDs when their owners verified their registration with Comelec.

The two voters claimed to have paid P200 each for the ID to apparent fixers who posed as Comelec employees.

“We are calling on the public not to transact with fixers when they apply for registration in Comelec offices nationwide. Bear in mind that voter’s registration is free and that the Comelec is the only government agency authorized to issue voter’s ID,” he noted.

Jimenez said the public should be wary when people charge fees in exchange for facilitating the release of voters’ IDs.

“It is most certain that the ID is a fake. Worse, you run the risk of not being allowed to vote on election day,” he claimed.

The confiscated IDs have distinguishing marks, such as the Comelec logo is oval in shape ad not balanced, the water mark on the front portion is barely visible, the signature of former Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos is smaller, the thumb mark is impressed using stamp pad ink and the IDs are manually signed by the voters and manually laminated.

This development came as Comelec chairman Jose Melo said that the printing of new voters’ IDs had been stopped pending the implementation of the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).

AFIS is a technology wherein the thumb marks of voters are cross-matched to eliminate double and multiple registrants.

Melo added the Comelec might be able to issue AFIS-compatible IDs after the 2010 polls but there are already IDs that are on the pipeline and due for release.