The House of Representatives yesterday gave the nod for the measure requiring biometrics registration for “honest, clean and credible” elections. House Bill 3469, principally authored by Tarlac Rep. Susan Yap, which was passed on third and final reading seeks to ensure the integrity of any electoral exercises, be it election, plebiscite or referenda.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will serve as the implementing arm of the measure. It is tasked to come up with a single, official, centralized, interactive computerized voter registration list “in a uniform and nondiscriminatory manner.”
Under HB 3469, voters who fail to submit for validation on or before the last day of filing of application for registration for purposes of the 2013 national and local elections, despite due notice, shall be deactivated from the registration record of the voters by the Election Registration Board. But, they may apply for reactivation and may be included again in the Registration Record of Voters.
Yap noted that registered voters, as of May 10, 2010 national elections and those who will register under Republic Act 8189 or the “The Voter’s Registration Act of 1996” without biometrics data shall submit themselves for validation.
“Registered voters shall submit for live capture his or her photograph, fingerprint and signature through the use of the data capturing machines (DCMs) before the EO of the city or municipality,” she said.
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, another author of the approved bill, said the mandatory biometrics registration would safeguard the sanctity of the right of people to suffrage, saying that with the computerized voters’ list, cheating during electoral exercises would become a “thing of the past.”
Full Article: Biometrics election registration gets approval | The Manila Bulletin Newspaper Online.