Comelec goes to Lumad areas for voters’ registration

STARTING today, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will hold a week-long IP Registration Week where its teams nationwide will go to communities of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) to urge them to register as voters.

Comelec Commissioner Luie Tito Guia said the IP Registration Week is “in furtherance of Comelec objective to ensure that the right of suffrage of the IPs is not hindered by issues on accessibility and in anticipation of the upcoming National IP Month in October.”

Guia told MindaNews that the Comelec “will go to identified communities

or in places near their communities, so that IPs will not have to go to the poblacion office of Comelec to apply for registration as voters.“

He said most Comelec offices in the municipalities have been doing satellite registration since August and the IP communities were among those reached.

Guia was in South Cptabato, Sarangani and Maguindanao last week to observe satellite registration in the IP communities – the T’boli, B’laan and Teduray in these areas.

He said the IP Registration Week is “intended to highlight Comelec’s existing IP empowerment efforts, by making sure that at least within that week, all provinces with IP population will conduct registration at least in one IP community.”