House joins Comelec’s Register Anywhere project for expanding voter registration access

The House of Representatives on Tuesday inked an agreement with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for its hosting of the poll body’s Register Anywhere project, an initiative which expands access to voter registration and where voters could have their voter details corrected, if need be.

Speaker Martin Romualdez and Comelec chairperson George Garcia signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the initiative during a short ceremony, a gathering also attended by Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo, House suffrage and electoral reforms chairperson Maximo Dalog Jr. of Mountain Province, among others.

“Our involvement in this laudable project is our modest contribution to the efforts of the Comelec to register as many voters as possible,” Romualdez said during his speech.

“We encourage our House members, personnel, and their dependents and relatives, as well as those of attached agencies, and our people in general to take advantage of this offsite or satellite listing project so they could exercise their right of suffrage in future elections,” he added.

The Register Anywhere project is open to House members, employees, congressional staff and personnel of attached agencies, and will be hosted by the House of Representatives from January 25 to 27, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the the North Wing Lobby of the Batasan complex.

Those who will turn 15 years of age by October 30, 2023, the next barangay and sangguniang kabataan polls, may register.

“We have been doing this Register Anywhere abroad [for Overseas Absentee Voting]. If we can do it abroad, why can't we do it here, too?” Garcia said in his speech.

“If we become so successful with this, our contention is to conduct Register Anywhere nationwide, in all regions,” Garcia added.

The House-Comelec MOU for the Register Anywhere project also provides free COVID-19 antigen test for 30 Comelec employees.

The Comelec, on the other hand, would provide the needed personnel, registration machines, laptops, and other equipment.

The Comelec would accept new registration, reactivation, transfer of registration, transfer from post to local in case of overseas voters, and updating of records of senior citizens and persons with disability.

The Comelec is already conducting off site registration at the same time as its regular listing in all its field offices throughout the country which started last December 12. — Llanesca T. Panti/RSJ, GMA Integrated News