Poll bet faces disqualification for padding barangay voters’ list

MANILA, Philippines —  For issuing barangay certificates to non-residents, a barangay chairman from Cagayan de Oro City faces a disqualification complaint and may no longer be able to run in next year’s congressional race.

In a 16-page petition, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Legal Department sought the disqualification of Rainier Joaquin Uy, who is running for representative of the 1st District of Cagayan de Oro City in the May 2025 polls.

According to the Comelec law department, Uy “willfully and maliciously” employed the fraudulent scheme of issuing barangay certifications even to non-residents of Barangay Carmen to influence and induce them to register as voters in that barangay, to purposely give due advantage to his candidacy for the elections.

The law department said there was an “implausible influx” of application for registration in Barangay Carmen and unexplainable number of applicants, who used barangay certifications issued by Uy in support of their application for registration.

It further noted that the procedure done for issuance of barangay certifications was marked by inconsistencies and irregularities.

“These dubious barangay certifications indubitably incite the registrants to apply for registration in Barangay Carmen, although they do not possess the residency requirement in the said barangay prescribed by law... (These are) all badges of fraud attributed to the Respondent,” the Comelec pointed out.

Comelec said there is no other individual that can best benefit from employing such a scheme than Uy and his congressional bid.

The poll body previously formed a special task force to look into the questionable high number of voter registrants in Barangay Carmen.

Investigation showed that out of 21,854 applications received for the entire voter registration period, 8,218 or 37.60 percent of the applicants used barangay certification as their valid identification.

Of the applications using barangay certifications, a total of 1,161 applications were disapproved in Barangay Carmen for failure to appear before the Election Registration Board and to satisfactorily prove residency in Carmen.

The Comelec conducted the investigation based on the request of reelectionist Rep. Lordan Suan of the Lakas-CMD.

HAT early completion

The Comelec expects to complete the Hardware Acceptance Test (HAT) on the 110,000 automated counting machines (ACMs) and other devices to be used in the May 2025 midterm polls ahead of schedule.

“With the early delivery of the ACMs, we can now immediately conduct our hardware assessment tests,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia said yesterday.

Garcia said they expect to complete the HAT by December and they could already proceed with the mandatory international certification of the automated election system.

The poll chief was told by the US firm Pro V&V, which shall conduct the international certification, that the process could be completed by the first week of January or way ahead of the required three months before elections.

After the international certification, Garcia said, the Comelec will immediately conduct nationwide mock elections.

Yesterday, the joint venture led by South Korean firm Miru Systems delivered the last batch of 9,860 units to complete the 110,620 ACMs procured by the Comelec for the elections.

Garcia said Miru completed the delivery a month ahead of the December contractual obligation to deliver all machines.

All voting machines and peripherals are undergoing hardware acceptance tests at Comelec’s warehouse, including a random stress testing of five percent of the machines.

So far, Garcia said, none of the machines that have undergone hardware acceptance testing have been rejected. About 70,000 ACMs have already undergone HAT, he said.