Cagayan de Oro House aspirant faces Comelec disqualification case

Comelec headquarters in Intramuros, Manila. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has filed a disqualification case against a House of Representatives aspirant in Cagayan de Oro City over alleged involvement in irregular voter registrations in the area.

The case was lodged by the  Comelec’s law department on Tuesday against Raineir Joaquin Velez Uy, a former village chairman running as 1st district representative of the city, for violating the provisions of the Omnibus Election Code.

“It is most respectfully prayed of this Honorable Commission to DISQUALIFY Respondent RAINEIR JOAQUIN VELEZ UY from being a candidate for the position of Member, House of Representatives, 1st District, Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, pursuant to Section 68 of the Omnibus Election Code, in relation to Section 261 (e) of the same Code,” said the 16-page petition furnished to the media on Wednesday.

The petition alleged that Uy is mostly responsible for a 44.41 percent voter registration increase in Barangay Carmen due to his issuance of a barangay certification.

Barangay Carmen only had 39,359 registered voters on Oct. 30, 2023. However, as of Nov. 11, the number of registered voters surged to 56,837.

Of the 21,854 voter registration applicants, 8,218 or 37.60 percent used the barangay certification issued by Uy, charging a P50 certification fee per applicant, according to the poll body.

Currently, one requirement the public can present as an identification document to become a registered voter in a locality is a barangay certification.

The Comelec, however, said, “there is a high number of barangay certifications issued by the respondent without verifying if the applicants were indeed residents of Barangay Carmen.”

Previously, Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia said the sudden surge of voters in the said village poses a conflict of interest since the respondent is a political aspirant.

The Comelec has a task force investigating suspicious transfers of voters from one place to another.

Similar case also emerged in Makati City, where the voter qualifications of over 3,000 voters were questioned over irregularities, with the issuance of barangay certifications also seen as the main culprit.