Lawyer assails Comelec policy on voting by detainees

A lawyer has asked the Supreme Court to prohibit detainees, including high-profile ones like former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, from voting in the May 2016 elections unless clear guidelines have been made on detainee registration and voting.

 

In a 17-page petition, Atty. Victor Aguinaldo asked the tribunal to declare as unconstitutional Commission on Elections Resolution No. 9371, which sets the rules on detainee voting and registration. He described the resolution as "imperfect, inadequate, and deficient."

 

He said detainees in the entire Philippines should not yet be allowed to register and vote in the coming 2016 elections "unless clear parameters or guidelines have been set as to cover all circumstances or incidents on detainee registration and voting."

 

While it had been promulgated during the 2013 synchronized national and local elections, the assailed Comelec resolution still "involves transcendental constitutional issue" that can be applied to the coming elections, said the petitioner.

 

In his petition, Aguinaldo said the Comelec resolution "created partiality, inequality, prejudice, and injustice because detainees were given greater rights or privileges by allowing them to register and vote in the elections."

 

Aguinaldo said Comelec Resolution No. 9371 has "loopholes, uncertainties, gaps, and ambiguities in the application of the said law."

 

"It must be emphasized that these detainees, either confined in jails or at the National Bilibid Prison [sic], are prisoners, who violated the laws of the land; and thus, their privileges or right of suffrage as compared to an ordinary citizen or absentee voter should, in the ordinary course of things, be necessarily restricted or limited," read the petition.

 

He said "Implementing Rules and Regulations" for the law have not yet come out to cover circumstances as to who, what, when, why, how these detainees should be allowed to vote and register.

 

He cited as an example former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is currently under house arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City for plunder over the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office fund mess.

 

He said there is a need to determine if prisoners like Arroyo should be allowed to vote locally in her province when she is detained in Quezon City.

 

"Their incarceration are considered forced against them and not voluntary, hence, the question as to whether or not such detainees can vote locally or only in the national elections arises for the simple reason that when the said detainees were transferred to the said facilities, their residence requirement is forced upon them and not voluntary," read the petition.

 

Allowing detainees to vote locally and nationally would violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution, and would be an injustice to absentee voters like policemen, journalists, and poll volunteers who are only allowed to vote nationally.

 

He said the Comelec ruling that sets guidelines on detainee voting should be suspended for now, pending the passage of a clearer, more defined, and more detailed law on detainees registration and voting.

 

Aguinaldo stressed that he did not intend to disenfranchise detainee voters but merely wanted "to settle matters into its proper perspective."

 

"There are detainees that should only vote nationally... [like] in the cases of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Senator Ramon Revilla Jr, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, General [Jovito] Palparan, and the now famous [Joel and Mario] Reyes brothers and those who are similarly situated where they are presently detained other than their place of their residence," read the plea.

 

Aguinaldo also claimed that the passage of the law did not undergo any public consultation or public hearings where stakeholders in the elections may participate in the deliberation before its passage.

 

Named respondents were the New Bilibid Prison, the Department of Justice, Comelec, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, various provincial, city, and municipal jails, and the enlisted voters of the NBP.  — ELR, GMA News