Comelec: Taguig voter transferees want Makati benefits back

Comelec headquarters in Intramuros, Manila. INQUIRER FILES

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia on Friday said this was the reason given by over 3,000 vote transferees in the city, who were previous classified as residents of Makati City

This issue was borne out of the 2022 Supreme Court decision, which ordered the transfer of 10 “embo” villages to the jurisdiction of Taguig. 

“The reason that they always provide is, they still want to receive the benefits they used to receive in Makati,” Garcia said in a press conference at Palacio del Gobernador in Manila during the submission of the certificate of candidacies for aspirants of Bangsamoro elections.

Garcia said the issuance of barangay certifications is the main culprit behind the irregular transfer of voters, with Comelec’s Election Registration Board (ERB) recommending filing charges against responsible village officials.

“The recommendation of the (ERB) panel is to prosecute those responsible for issuing barangay certification en masse—those are barangay officials,” he said.

He said the Comelec en banc will soon release a resolution to solve the matter.

But at present, Garcia said the ERB has rejected “around a thousand” of the 3,000 who applied to have their voter registration transferred.

Last Oct. 14, the United Nationalists Alliance, a party led by Sen. Nancy Binay who is gunning for Makati City’s mayoral post, questioned before Comelec the validity of the qualifications of 3,000 registrants in the 2nd district and 79 more in the 1st district.

Makati’s 2nd district is the bailiwick of Sen. Binay’s mayolralty rival, Makati 2nd Dist. Rep. Luis Campos.

The high court decision left Makati’s 2nd district with only three villages under it.