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2 MARCH 2010

CHR ON COMELEC’S GRANT OF ITS PETITION RE: DETAINEE/PRISONER VOTING: A MILESTONE DEVELOPMENT IN VOTER ENFRANCHISEMENT PARTICULARLY AMONG VULNERABLE SECTORS

 

The Commission on Human Rights issues this Press Statement as it welcomes the Commission on Elections Resolution in E.M. No 09 – 005 implementing the Right to Vote of Persons Deprived of their Liberty (DETAINEES/PRISONERS) in National Prisons, Provincial, City and Municipal Jails and other Government Detention Facilities in the May 10, 2010 National Elections.

CHR acknowledges COMELEC's decision as a laudable development in affirming and restoring the right to vote by detainees/prisoners, or Persons Deprived of their Liberty (PDLs).

Invoking its constitutional mandates to investigate on its own or on complaint by any party all forms of human rights violations involving civil and political rights, exercise visitorial powers over jails, prisons, or detention facilities, and monitor Philippine Government's compliance with international treaty obligations on human rights, the CHR represented by Chairperson Leila M. de Lima, filed on November 3, 2009 a petition to bring attention to obligations arising from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and urged the COMELEC to enforce constitutional and statutory provisions on the right of suffrage of PDLs. The CHR petition prayed for the issuance of implementing rules and regulations for the setting up of special polling places and procedures for voting by PDLs in the May 2010 elections.

 

COMELEC Decision Granting Special Polling Places and Board of Election Inspectors

The COMELEC Resolution, promulgated on 23 February 2010, examined CHR's apprehensions on an earlier COMELEC Resolution providing for off-site escorted voting for PDLs citing that this will be a 'logistical nightmare' and will pose security risks for escorts primarily provided by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP). The decision, penned by COMELEC Commissioner Rene V. Sarmiento, declared that CHR’s apprehensions “were far from imagined”.

In place of off-site voting, the CHR, as supported by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines – Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care (CBCP-ECPPC) and the Coalition Against Death Penalty (CADP), offered the solution of “rather than PDLs going to the polling places, the polling places should go to the PDLs”.

The commonly perceived legal obstacle found under Section 155 of the Omnibus Election Code, or BP Blg. 881, prohibiting the setting up of polling places in 'prison or prison compounds' was assailed by the CHR citing that the prohibition did not contemplate an all-encompassing term denoting all kinds of detention facilities or prisons.

The COMELEC stated the term 'prison compound' has no legal definition under any law and the Resolution draws on its rule-making powers in the Omnibus Election Code, by clarifying the term as not to include the premises of municipal, district, city and provincial jails which now effectively allows polling places to be set up inside these facilities but exclusively for detainee voters.

The Resolution grants the CHR petition to establish special polling places complete with Special Board of Election Inspectors for PDLs in municipal, district, city and provincial jails with at least 100 voters. The main functions of the special BEI are as follows: 1) to bring the precinct-specific ballots of detainees to the special polling places inside jails, 2) conduct the voting except the scanning and counting by the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines in jail facilities in a manner that detainee electors with lower precinct number shall vote ahead of electors registered in higher-numbered precincts and 3) bring the filled up precinct-specific ballots to the detainees' respective precincts for scanning and counting. In cities where there are several districts, a special BEI shall be established per district regardless of their number per district. The ballots of detainees per jail facility shall be packed together and in such manner that they can be identified per precinct when they reach the special polling places in jails.

For jails with less than 100 voters and prisons with inmates qualified to vote, the detainees and prisoners will still have to be escorted to their respective polling precincts. Their escorts will be authorized to bear firearms inside polling centers.

The Resolution further provides that jail and prison personnel who will be escorting PDL voters will be considered performing election duty and may avail of the local absentee voting.

 

Continuing Advocacy for Zero Disenfranchisement

It must be recalled that the Commission on Human Rights has embarked on a Zero Disenfranchisement campaign of seven vulnerable sectors beginning September 2008 which included the PDL sector (other sectors include: First Time Voters, the Elderly, Persons with Disabilities, Indigenous Peoples, Internally Displaced Persons and Migrant Workers). Efforts have been sustained by the CHR together with civil society groups in realizing the right to vote by PDLs in the country. These efforts include a monitoring project with the Ateneo School of Government (ASOG) called “PDL Vote Watch” designed to further inform the Commission as it undertakes corresponding Human Rights Based Legislation to elaborate on the right to suffrage. This will be included in the CHR's Human Rights Legislative Agenda for the 15 th Congress.

Chairman de Lima, in welcoming the decision stated, “This is an important development and a landmark decision in human rights jurisprudence. We are encouraged with the COMELEC Resolution as we continue to work towards fulfilling the obligation to enable all vulnerable groups such as persons deprived of their liberty to enjoy the universal right of suffrage. I guess we’re blessed with the presence of a true-blooded human rights advocate in the COMELEC, in the person of Comm. Sarmiento, the ponente of the Resolution”