Employers help on voter’s registration sought
BACOLOD CITY — Sangguniang Panlungsod Member Wilson Gamboa Jr., chair of the Committee on Labor and Management, recently passed a resolution requesting all private and public companies and offices in the city of Bacolod to encourage and grant discretionary incentives such as a one-day off with pay to employees so they could register for the 2010 election on or before the deadline on October 31, 2009.
Gamboa said that the Commission on Election (COMELEC) has set the deadline earlier on October 31, 2009 from the original deadline of December 15, 2009 for registration of first-time voters and also to new registrants.
He said that the COMELEC targets to reach the registration of three million new voters of the five million estimated first-time voters and new registrants for this year in the whole country.
“With only nine weeks before the October 31 deadline for registration less than 850,000 new voters have registered in the country so far,” Gamboa added.
He said that there is an urgency for this resolution since most registrants are employees who spend eight hours in the office and usually finds no time to register after a day’s work ends.
Gamboa cited that only 803 voters in Bacolod City have reactivated their records from the voter’s list as of June 2009 out of the 83,325 deactivated by the COMELEC.
“There is a need now to urge voters young and old alike to either register or reactivate their dormant registration,” Gamboa said.
He said that it is the role of the government to encourage and inspire first-time voters and new registrants, specially the youth, to register on or before the deadline that likewise even media, non-government organization, civic and social groups drum-up their campaign for an active participation in the forthcoming election.