TABUK CITY, Kalinga – To avoid fraudulent voter registration, especially for new registrants, the Commission on Election (COMELEC)- Tabuk Officer Atty. Reyman Solbita reported that a new registration method was put in place by their office.
“Nagadu natiklu mi nga nu birth certificate lang iti dala da, after several years, umayen diay usto nga tattao nga agki-claim nga ‘in-register da siak idi gapu ta awanak’ isu nga we require two documents,” he said.
(Many of the people we uncovered to be registering themselves simply brought birth certificates. Several years later, the genuine person shows up and says, ‘someone registered pretending to be me because I was not there.’ For this reason, we need two documents.)
In order to prevent people pretending to be others, Solbita further explained that new registrants must present a photocopy of their birth certificate from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) along with a legitimate identity card (ID) that has a photograph.
The election officer went on to say that as a result, the victim and the fraudulent party are unable to obtain voter certification at the COMELEC because their applications do not match, which causes delays in applying for jobs, obtaining passports, and completing other official and private transactions.
He also issued a warning to individuals who intended to register twice, telling them to be honest about their registration in one location so they could simply transfer it to another location, rather than making up an excuse that they had not yet registered.
According to him, the penalty of double registration is severe that not even political bribery during an election could pay the bail of Php60,000 and spare them from serving more than a year to six months in jail. By Edward Joseph Gacuya
