CDO village chair denies hand in unusual hike in voter registration

MANILA, Philippines — The embattled village chair in a Cagayan de Oro village denied on Wednesday direct involvement in almost all of the submitted documents of anomalous and unusually huge first-time voter registrants in his area seen as a boon for his political bid.

Raineir Joaquin Velez Uy, a former village chair running as 1st district representative of the city, shows up on the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms to explain his side in the surge of new voters in Carmen village.

READ: Comelec to sue culprit behind irregular registrants in Cagayan de Oro

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) law department alleged that Uy is mostly responsible for a 44.41 percent voter registration increase in Barangay Carmen due to his issuance of barangay certification.

Comelec said Barangay Carmen only had 39,359 registered voters on Oct. 30, 2023; but as of Nov. 11, 2024, 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, according to Comelec.

Pressed by Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro if he is directly involved in the issuance of all the barangay certification of 8,218 individuals, Uy answered in the negative.

Uy noted that the issuance of such certification are administrative tasks.

“In our citizen’s charter, they are entitled to sign on it. The certification is just ministerial, so, as a barangay as a Barangay Carmen, a service-oriented barangay, the barangay captain has many services to attend to,” Uy said.

Pressed again as to how many barangay certifications have he personally issued out of the 8,218 individuals, Uy said “about one or two.”

Luistro then moved to issue a subpoena to the barangay officials who issued the barangay certification.

Previously, Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia said the sudden surge of voters in the said village poses 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.