THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Cebu welcomed the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the “no bio, no boto” policy.
Lawyer Lionel Marco Castillano, Comelec Cebu provincial election supervisor, said that this will ensure that the list of voters for 2016 will be cleansed.
“We need a clean list so that we can do away with flying voters, and multiple or double registrants,” he told reporters yesterday.
With a “cleansed” list of voters, Castillano said they are confident that there will also be clean elections next year.
The SC earlier junked the petition of left-leaning group Kabataan Party List against the policy and lifted a Dec. 1 restraining order.
Three million voters have failed to register their biometrics for the upcoming national elections.
In line with the existing policy, they will not be allowed to vote next year.
The supervisor said that the Comelec is only implementing a law requiring mandatory biometrics for all registrants.
Even before the ruling, Castillano said the Comelec in Cebu already concluded its clustering of precincts and finalized the list of voters in the province.
“Our fear then was that if the SC granted the petition, we would reinstate the names of those who have been supposedly deactivated,” said Castillano.
Castillano said he is thankful to the SC en banc for having acted on the matter, even when the magistrates are supposed to be on Christmas break.
He said they can now move on with preparations for next year’s elections.
Comelec chairman Andres Bautista said earlier that they will release an initial list of candidates on Dec. 23 and the final list of candidates on Jan. 8.
Castillano said that they hope to start printing the ballots by the end of the year or the first week of January 2016.