Comelec wants Congress to drop barangay certification as voter requisite

FILE PHOTO: Commission on Elections Chairperson George Garcia. INQUIRER / NINO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will formally ask Congress to no longer allow the issuance of barangay certification as a proof of voter identity, its chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Wednesday.

Garcia said the Comelec en banc decided to make a resolution to formalize this request in their regular session held at Century Park Hotel in Pasay City.

“We will convey the intention of the commission to the Congress to remove barangay certification as a requirement for new voters,” Garcia told INQUIRER.net in a chance interview after the regular en banc session.

READ: Brgy certificates’ ‘massive’ issuance caused Makati’s huge voter transfers

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

Garcia previously noted that the Supreme Court ruled that barangay certification is acceptable in absence of any government IDs, but he said this could lead to “mass migration” of voters from one locality to the other.

The Comelec, during the same en banc session, also moved to disqualify and file election charges against a House of Representatives official in Cagayan de Oro city for allegedly facilitating the anomalous voter registration using barangay certifications.

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

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