By Ferdinand Patinio
Voter registration in the province of Palawan is suspended to give way to the activities for the plebiscite for its division into three separate provinces, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Thursday.
“The voter registration is suspended from February 11 to March 20. Our voter registration will resume on March 23, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The offices of our Election Officers are open from Tuesday to Saturday including holidays,” Sheila May Guno, Election Officer II in Araceli town, said in a virtual briefing.
Meanwhile, Comelec Region 4-B (Mimaropa) director Gloria Petallo said the initial budget allocation for the referendum is at PHP79 million.
Petallo added that they also asked for an additional PHP50 million for the establishment of additional polling places to comply with the guidelines issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
“Because of the postponement and after the IATF approved the health protocol suggestion by the Comelec, so we have to request for another supplemental budget to cover the additional polling places. Before the pandemic, we can accommodate 400 regular voters in the polling precinct. But now, we can only accommodate 200 to comply with the IATF requirements, observing distancing and health protocols,” she said.
The referendum was originally scheduled for May 2020 but was moved to March this year as quarantine restrictions were implemented amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“So we requested I think around PHP50 million excluding the expenses of the provincial government, we requested them to provide health supplies for the local of Palawan,” Petallo said.
The province has 490,639 registered voters.
On March 13, voters will choose whether or not to divide Palawan into three provinces -- Palawan Oriental, Palawan del Norte, and Palawan del Sur, pursuant to Republic Act 11259.
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