Taguig files charges vs Comelec

MANILA, Philippines - The Taguig City government yesterday filed an administrative case against five Commission on Elections officials and decried their failure to provide the city with a clean list of registered voters, casting doubt on the integrity of the city’s voter database.

Taguig Vice Mayor lawyer George Elias led the filing of the complaint before the Comelec head office in Intramuros, seeking the immediate relief of Taguig Election Officer Marcos Arcadio Lauron, local election office employees Faisal Samundi, Melanie Icaro and Yolanda Bajar, and Comelec-National Capital Region Director IV Michael Dioneda, for violation of the Omnibus Election Code, the Revised Penal Code and RA 6713; gross misconduct, gross neglect of duty and inefficiency and incompetence, among other violations.

Joining Elias as complainants were Barangay chairman Danilo Rivera of Western Bicutan and former Taguig vice mayor Nicanor Garcia.

Complaints

In the complaint, Elias cited the respondents’ failure to release Taguig’s certified voter’s list (CVL) and Project of Precincts (POP).

“The anomalies consist of failure in the release of the CVL, and the systematic failure to respond to request for issuance of voter’s certification. Unless the city’s voters database is cleansed, we fear that legitimate voters will be disenfranchised and may be substituted with illegitimate names,” Elias said. He noted that the local Comelec office has failed to take action on official requests by certain individuals for a “delisted” voter’s list. He cited the case of Garcia who wrote a letter to Lauron dated Dec. 10, 2009, requesting for a list of deactivated and deceased voters. To date, Lauron has yet to respond to the request despite the lapse of the 15-day reply period as prescribed in RA 6713.

Rivera cited the complaints of nine residents who have not been issued voter’s certification despite the filing of their applications for registration.

“Instead of accelerating the completion of the CVL, so it appears, respondents Lauron, Samundi, Icaro and Bajar have resorted to a systematic pattern of delay,” the complaint said. The complaint also alleges that Lauron, with help from Samundi, Icaro and Bajar, executed irregular acts in excluding qualified and properly documented voters from the Comelec database, while including in the database persons whose applications are not properly documented or have no record of applications on file.