House passes bill on extension of voter registration for Eleksyon 2022

The House of Representatives on Monday approved on third and final reading the measure seeking to extend the voter's registration for Eleksyon 2022.

After obtaining 193 affirmative votes,  House Bill 10261 or An Act Fixing the Last Day of Registration of Voters for the 2022 National and Local Elections was approved in the chamber.

The bill provides that "the last day of registration of voters for the 2022 national and local elections shall be 30 days after the effectivity of this Act."

The bill sought to compel the Commission on Elections to extend the September 30,2021 deadline of voter registration to prevent massive voter disenfranchisement brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Its authors include Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, Majority Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and Minority Leader Joseph Stephen Paduano,

Albay Representative Edcel Lagman said the extension was more crucial and critical because the continuing registration of voters was stalled by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic even as Republic Act No. 8189 on continuing registration of voters validly subsists.

Lagman is the principal author of Republic Act No. 8189 or The Voter's Registration Act of 1996, which establishes a system of continuing registration of voters under Section 8:

"The personal filing of application of registration of voters shall be conducted daily in the office of the Election Officer during regular office hours. No registration shall, however, be conducted during the period starting one hundred twenty (120) days before a regular election and ninety (90) days before a special election."

"I would like to underscore that since House Bill No. 10261 is only for the fixing of the last day of registration of voters for the May 9, 2022 national and local elections, Section 8 of R.A. No. 8189 will still apply to subsequent elections," Lagman said.

On the part of the Senate, Senate Bill No. 2408 was also approved on third reading Monday seeking the extension of voter registration to October 31, 2021. -NB, GMA News