THE Supreme Court (SC) en banc yesterday issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the “No Bio, No Boto” policy of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
The high tribunal resolved to issue the TRO effective immediately until further orders from the Court directing Comelec to desist from deactivating registered voters without biometric information, said SC spokesman Theodore Te.
The SC also ordered the Comelec to submit its comment within a non-extendible period of 10 days from notice even as it directed the Office of the Solicitor General to submit its comment within the same period.
The issuance of the order was based on a 32-page petition for certiorari and prohibition by a group that sought for the exercise of judicial review to assail the constitutionality of the deactivation of registration of voters without biometrics and enjoin the implementation of provisions of the Republic Act no. 10367 or “An Act Providing for Mandatory Biometrics Voter Registration.”
The petitioners also sought for the nullification of Comelec Resolution no. 9721 dated June 26, 2013, Resolution no. 9863 dated April 1, 2014 and Resolution no. 10013, all related to deactivation of voter registration records in the May 9, 2016 elections as directed by the assailed RA no. 10367.
Assisted by lawyer Krissy Conti, petitioners include Kabataan Rep. Terry Ridon and Kabataan president Marjohara Tucay, National Union of Students of the Philippines president Sarah Elago, and Anakbayan chairperson Vencer Crisostomo;
Marc Lino Abila, national president of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines; Einstein Recedes, deputy secretary-general of Anakbayan; Charisse Bañez, chairperson of the League of Filipino Students; and aggrieved parties Arlene Clarisse Julve and Sining Marfori, both of whom stand to lose their right to vote due to the assailed law and implementing regulations.
Reads part of their petition: “Republic Act no. 10367 and its implementing regulations are unconstitutional as these impose an unconstitutional, additional substantive requirement imposed on the exercise of suffrage, thus violating Section 1, Article V of the 1987 Constitution.”
They argued that the 1987 Constitution states that “(no) literacy, property, or other substantive requirement shall be imposed on the exercise of suffrage.”
They said the biometrics validation “gravely violates due process as it is an unreasonable deprivation of the constitutional right to vote for millions of Filipinos who have failed to register their biometric information despite existing and active registration – in effect a voter’s reegistration – for various reasons whether personal or institutional.”
The petitioners noted that despite Comelec’s “No Bio, No Boto” campaign, official data from the Comelec showed that only 3,599,906 registered voters have undergone the mandatory biometrics validation procedure as of Sept. 30, 2015.
The Comelec also revealed that a total of 3,059,601 registered voters remain without biometrics data as of Sept. 30, 2015.
According to the Comelec, this figure is equivalent to 5.86 percent of the total 52,239,488 registered voters for the 2016 national and local elections.
“It is thus apparent that over three million registered voters stand to illegally lose their right of suffrage in the May 9, 2016 national and local elections without the benefit of due process due to the implementation of an additional requirement that is patently unconstitutional,” the petitioners argued.
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