Parishes tapped to help in ‘No Bio, No Boto’ campaign for 2016 polls

Efforts to have Filipino voters have their biometric data taken in time for the 2016 elections will get a big boost at the parish level.

 

Poll watchdog group Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting will tap the parishes in urging voters to register and validate their biometrics.

 

“The PPCRV will be assisting the (Commission on Elections) by sending letters to bishops of dioceses and priests in all parishes to issue the reminder every Sunday Masses to the faithful on checking their voters’ registration statuses,” PPCRV chairperson Henrietta de Villa said in an article on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines news site.

 

De Villa also urged the public not to wait for the October 31 deadline to have their biometrics taken.

 

Queues could get long as the deadline nears, she warned.

 

“Check your registration status early. Comelec offices are open on Sundays for this. Don’t wait for the last days in October as lines could be long by then,” she said.

 

The Comelec is presently holding its "No Bio, No Boto" campaign to remind voters to have their biometric data taken for the 2016 polls.

 

Earlier, it estimated some 4.3 million registered voters may not be allowed to vote as they still do not have their biometric data registered.

 

De Villa said voters should realize they may not be allowed to vote if they have no digital photograph, signature or fingerprint in their Comelec records.

 

“The people should be told to just check or validate their registration because there is now a law that if your biometrics are incomplete or absent, they cannot vote,” de Villa said. —Joel Locsin/KG, GMA News