Voters of Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City look for their respective precincts in this May 14, 2018 photo. According to the Commission on Elections, Cebu now has 3 million voters.
CDN FILE PHOTO
Cebu is a likely destination for politicians vying for national positions in the 2019 midterm elections.
This as Cebu’s voting population has hit 3 million based on the data obtained at the Provincial (Commission on Election) Comelec Office on Wednesday.
Cebu Province, including highly urbanized cities of Cebu and Lapu-Lapu, now has 3,082,621 voters. This number is over 300,000 higher than that of the May 2016 Presidential elections and the 2018 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE).
Provincial Election Supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano said the rise in the province voting population was due to the supposed migration of workers from other provinces in urbanized and industrialized LGUs of Cebu.
“Gawas sa mga batan-on nga nag-18, daghan ang mga namalhin sa Cebu from neighboring provinces to work. Tungod ni siya sa atong economy (Aside from the young voters who just turned 18, Many people have moved to Cebu from neighboring provinces to work. This is due to our economy),” Castillano said.
He said that national candidates would be expected to frequent the province because of it being a “vote-rich” one.
Among the senatorial bets that had been in and out of Cebu for the past months is Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, who is vying for a Senate seat in the 2019 elections.
Her latest visit was in the last week of November where she visited Barangay Tisa in Cebu City prior to her speaking engagement in the convention of the Philippine Councilor’s League (PCL-Cebu) at a posh hotel in the city’s uptown area.
Cebu City remains to have the richest voting population in the province with 709,608 voters accumulated from the north and south district of the city.
This is almost 40,000 voters more than that of the BSKE.
Mandaue City is second richest in voting population in the whole province with 226,000 voters followed by Lapu-Lapu City with 214,000 voters.
Castillano said the number of voters counted were already verified by their national headquarters and had been validated to be free from double entry.
Castillano also said that they would meet with police officials today (Dec. 6) to discuss their preparations for the midterm elections next year.
Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) director, said that they would present to the Comelec their security plan for the elections.
Sinas also said that they would discuss the gun ban exemptions, checkpoints and security of very important persons. /With a report from Reporter Nestle L. Semilla