Pasay poll exec: No manpower to verify ‘flying voters’

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in Pasay City does not have enough manpower to verify claims of “flying voters,” an official said yesterday.

Pasay City election officer Ramon Rosello said they have a vetting process to determine if voters registering in a certain area are indeed residents through “precinct maps,” wherein residents list their addresses and this would determine which precinct they would cast their vote.

However, he admitted that they lack the manpower to verify addresses since District 2 – where Barangay 97 belongs – of the election office only has six employees.

At present, Barangay 97 has 3,836 voters in the barangay and 1,884 in the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) level.

Last Wednesday, Yok Tin “Baby” So, a resident of Barangay 97, filed a criminal case against 1,458 alleged registered voters of Barangay 97 before the city prosecutor yesterday for violation of Section 261 (y) (2) of the Omnibus Election Code, or the election offense wherein “any person who knowingly makes any false or untruthful statement relative to any of the data or information required in the application for registration.”

The STAR later learned that So plans to run against Ang as chairman of Barangay 97 in the May elections.

The voters registered in April 2017, supposedly for the October 2017 barangay and SK elections, which was postponed until May this year, she claimed.

In her complaint, she listed 10 addresses – including the EDSA station of the Light Rail Transit Line 1, an office of a local cell phone company, an unfinished townhouse and the house of Barangay 97 chairman Jose Serafico Ang – where the 1,458 voters were registered.

These addresses have either up to over 300 voters registered there or do not exist at all, she said.

So also disclosed that they were able to verify that most of the voters included in her complaint were residents of Caloocan and the Manila North Cemetery area. She added that some of them were even minors who were told that their names would be included in the voter’s list.

Rosello said the criminal charges filed against over 1,400 alleged “flying voters” could be considered a “test case” since it would be the first time that a prosecutor would determine which body – either the Comelec law department or a local court – would decide on their fate as voters.

So could have filed petitions for exclusion of these voters, Rosello added, but noted that the deadline for filing such petitions ended on Feb. 2.