BJMP working on schedules for voter registration of PDLs, says spox

The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) on Wednesday said it is working with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in setting up schedules for the voter registration of persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).

BJMP spokesperson Colonel Xavier Solda said that for the meantime, they just coordinated with the Comelec on the possible schedules considering that the poll body is busy on the first few days of the resumption of voter registration.

“Kaya ang ginawa muna ng BJMP, nakipag-coordinate tayo para sa scheduling (So what the BJMP did for the meantime is coordinate for the schedules),” he said at a televised public briefing.

According to him, local Comelec officials will be the ones who will go to BJMP facilities where special satellite registration sites will be set up.

Solda said the National Headquarters has provided to jail units the rules and regulations for the voter registration of PDLs.

The voter registration for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) started on Monday.

Comelec chairperson George Garcia earlier said the poll body will process the registration applications of first-time SK election voters and regular voters.

Voters can also apply for transfer of voter registration records, reactivation of voting status, and correction or change of entries in the voter registration record.

PDLs released

Meanwhile, Solda said 497 PDLs were released from BJMP facilities recently.

“Natutuwa kami na meron tayong napalaya na 497 na mga PDL recently (We are happy that 497 PDLs were released recently).

To speed up the process of the release of PDLs, Solda said the BJMP is in coordination with the Office of the Court Administrator, European Union’s  Governance in Justice (GOJUST) program, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

He said the BJMP is also informing courts when PDLs already served the minimum of their sentence.

According to Solda, this is in line with the target of the BJMP to decongest its jail facilities. In August, Solda said 334 of the 477 BJMP jails were still congested. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News