No deadline extension for voter registration

MANILA, Philippines — Voter registration will not be extended beyond Sept. 30 despite the suspension of voter registration activities due to the imposition of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesterday.

According to Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, the deadline for voter registration remains to be Sept. 30 and there will be no extension.

She maintained that the decision of the commission is final.

“We have to finish Project of Precincts in December… Voters’ names will have to be assigned to precincts,” she noted in an interview.

She underscored that aside from this, the official ballots will have to be printed by January. “All of that depends on the exact number of registered voters,” she said.

But Guanzon gave assurance the Comelec is looking for ways to allow voters more time to sign up for the 2022 polls.

“Next meeting we will deliberate remedial measures due to ECQ. I will propose Sunday (registration). Some commissioners suggested extended hours,” she added.

Earlier, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases placed Metro Manila, Bataan, Laguna, Iloilo City and Cagayan de Oro City under ECQ.

Under modified ECQ are Apayao, Ilocos Norte, Cavite, Rizal, Lucena City, Aklan, Iloilo, Lapu-Lapu City, Mandaue City and Cebu City.

This prompted the Comelec to suspend voter registration in these areas.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, however, strongly urged the Comelec yesterday to reconsider its decision not to extend voter registration with the two-week lockdown in Metro Manila.

“There are now only 52 days left to register to vote. With 11 days to go under ECQ, we will lose two weeks where we could have reached more people,” Pangilinan appealed.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the filing of candidacies in October is also part of the consideration as preparing the final list of voters should have already started by then.

Pangilinan, however, hopes some leeway could be made given pandemic restrictions.

Outside of extending voter’s registration, he recommends adding more satellite registration sites and extend registration hours to weekends.

As of June, the Comelec said the commission has breached the projected four million new voters for 2022, with a total so far of 60 million registered voters.

Comelec remains confident that there will be a sizeable turnout of voters despite the pandemic.

Sara’s run

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana meanwhile hinted yesterday of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio’s possible candidacy for president in 2022.

“I have kept my silence since I bumped into Mayor Sara Duterte at a wedding two weeks ago,” he said in social media posts that kept netizens guessing.

“I asked her if she would be running for president in the coming elections. Guess what she answered me?” Lorenzana said without revealing the response of President Duterte’s daughter.

He even posted a picture of them in the supposed wedding they both attended showing that he indeed was able to speak with her.

Sara Duterte has been topping early surveys for next year’s presidential elections but is yet to announce if she is indeed running for president.

A military reservist, the mayor was promoted to colonel of the Philippine Army Reserve Force in March last year.

The Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) will support Mayor Duterte-Carpio if she runs for president in 2022, the party’s chief Sen. Sonny Angara said yesterday.

Angara’s disclosure bolstered reports that the senator was being considered as a possible runningmate of Duterte’s daughter – who heads the Davao-based regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) – if she decides to seek the presidency.

“I and the party members I have spoken to have agreed to support her should she decide to run for president,” Angara told reporters.

He said the LDP was still drafting a memorandum of agreement that would be signed to formalize a possible pact with the HNP. The senator’s father, the late Senate president Edgardo Angara, once headed the party.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who is seeking the vice presidency under the Nationalist People’s Coalition, was unfazed by the possible alliance between the LDP and the HNP, saying “to each his own.”

“Alliances are good but it will not dictate our resolve to offer our ‘KKK’ to our people – Katapatan, Katapangan, Kakayanan,” Sotto said, referring to his tandem with Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who announced his intention to run for president.

Sotto also presented yesterday on Twitter a text message to his staff from a person relaying a message from Vice President Leni Robredo last July 14 seeking a meeting with him and Lacson to talk about uniting non-administration presidential aspirants.

Robredo is still deciding whether or not to seek the presidency as the Liberal Party’s standard bearer.

The message stated that Robredo wanted to “consult” Sotto and Lacson regarding the possibility of “uniting behind one candidate/one ticket come 2022.”

“She also says that the candidate need not be her as the victory and the unity of ticket for her is paramount,” the message read.

Sotto said he disclosed the message to correct reports that it was them who sought the meeting sometime last month where Robredo declined Lacson’s proposal for non-administration presidential aspirants to file their certificates of candidacy, and later withdraw and unite behind one of them with the best chance of winning based on polls. – Cecille Suerte Felipe, Michael Punongbayan, Paolo Romero