ELEKSYON 2022

Voter registrants sleep in queues to make cut-off at registration sites

Several voter registrants have been sleeping in long lines to secure slots for the last day of registration for the May 2022 elections on Saturday.

“Four days ko na ito [nakapila] na parating hindi nakakasama sa [cut-off]. Mahirap sobra, gusto lang namin bumoto,” Melanie Tolentino, a voter applicant in Manila, said in Jun Veneracion’s report on “24 Oras” on Friday.

(It has been four days since I fall in line and I was not always included in the cut-off.  It is very hard. We just want to vote.)

Long queues of applicants were also observed at a registration site in a Pasig City mall.

“Yung iba sa amin may mga trabaho pa po sa gabi, ako po nakiusap lang ako na kailangan kong magregister. Very disappointed po kami sa mga nangyayari po,” said applicant Richelle Domingo.

(Some of us still have night jobs, I just asked for permission that I would register. We are very disappointed with what’s happening.)

Some applicants, meanwhile, appealed for a better queue management system.

In response, Pasig election officer Felton Sadang said, “Kung ibibigay lang po namin nang kada dating ng tao may mga naging experience po kami noong nakaraan na paulit-ulit bumabalik ang mga tao para kumuha ng number. Isang tao minsan nakakatatlo o apat na number.”

(If we give a number to every person, we had experiences in the past that people kept coming back to get a number. One person even got three or four numbers.)

Datumama Macaindig, election officer of district 1 in Marikina City, attributed the increase in applicants to the “last minute syndrome.”

“Medyo nagulat kami pagdating nitong week bakit ang dami bigla, pero as usual ineexpect na namin na may pagka last minute syndrome ang mga Pilipino,” he said.

(We were a bit surprised this week, all of a sudden a lot of applicants came to register, but as usual Filipinos always have a last minute syndrome.)

The voter registration was supposed to end on September 30, but the Commission on Elections (Comelec) extended it following appeals from lawmakers and several groups.

The Comelec earlier said it expects up to 65 million registered voters for next year’s polls. — Richa Noriega/VBL, GMA News