City Election Officer's Message

In behalf of GenSan's City Elections Officer, Atty. Jose M. Villanueva, I was tasked today to read before the local government employees of General Santos City his message for the constituents of our city.

Magandang GenSan everyone!

It is with great pleasure, that we, in the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), are given this golden opportunity to make announcements before LGU employees of this great city. Believe it or not, we are still very busy in our office, contrary to popular belief that COMELEC is busy only during elections... and considering that 2008 is not an election year. Notwithstanding the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections, our office undertakes the following activities:

1. Releasing of Voter's ID
2. Issuance of Voter's Certification
3. Voter's Educational Training Program

The schedule for the registration of voters, transfer and correction of entries in the voting records is yet to be announced. Most probably, after the ARMM elections which is scheduled today, August 11, 2008.

For the information of everybody, the elections in ARMM is fully automated. Two systems will be used. The DRE or Direct Recording Electronic which records the vote and register automatically the votes in the database in COMELEC, Manila. The other one is the OMR or Optical Media Recording which needs a special type of paper as ballots and the votes are recorded by shading the appropriate blank spaces opposite the name of candidates. The DRE or Direct Recording Electronic is the more expensive system as we have to install the same for each polling precincts.

The automation in the ARMM elections is a test case for a full-blown automated elections come year 2010. At this point, we can only hope for the best and cross our fingers... that all systems perform as expected during crunch time.

Should you have any other concerns, please feel free to visit our office.

Thank you and good morning!

SEE ALSO RELATED LINK:

• The Voice of a COMELEC Employee: On ARMM Automated Elections 2008