22,000 Cabanatuan voters removed from Comelec list

By Manny Galvez

CABANATUAN CITY – After removing 1,279 dead voters, the local office of the Commission on Elections delisted 22,826 others from this city’s list of voters in preparation for the 2016 elections.

City election officer Leon Navarro said the removal was provided under Comelec Resolution 9863, which allows the deactivation of voters who failed to vote in two successive elections.

Navarro said the law does not apply to those who failed to vote in the Sangguniang Kabataan election.

He said the removal of deceased voters, estimated to be around 5,000, would continue until October.

The list, which was discovered in October last year, included a centenarian and 13 nonagenarians who passed away between 2012 and 2014.

“We are verifying the list of other dead voters and securing death certificates from their relatives in 89 villages to help fast-track the cleansing process,” Navarro said.

The purging of the city’s voters’ list is one of Comelec’s two major campaigns.

Earlier, the poll body launched a barangay-based campaign urging voters to update their records through the biometrics system.