By Gail Momblan/PNA
ILOILO CITY — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has ordered the reshuffling of municipal election officers for the May 13 polls.
Atty. Roberto Salazar, Comelec Iloilo supervisor, said on Tuesday that 42 municipalities in the province, the component city of Passi, and Iloilo City have new election officers.
Salazar said the reshuffling is effective from April 1 until June 13 this year, or the end of the election period.
“Reasons of the reshuffling are the exigency of service and to avoid that election officers will have biases brought about by our election officers’ familiarity with the election candidates,” he said in an interview.
The province’s election supervisor said the reshuffling is a “normal and ordinary” mandate of the commission.
“Some will be transferred to far areas but this is public service, they have to face the consequences of being in public service,” Salazar added.
Salazar on Tuesday also presented to Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. the Voter Registration Verification Machine (VRRM) for the midterm polls as Iloilo province is among the country’s pilot sites for the utilization of VRVMs.
He said one VRVM will be used for every clustered precinct, which gives the province more or less 2,472 VRVMs.
The VRVM will verify the fingerprint of the voter to make sure that he or she is registered.
“The machine will avoid flying voters, or identity thieves,” said Salazar, adding that VRMVs are yet to be delivered in the province.
Based on the data of the Comelec 6 (Western Visayas), Iloilo province has a total of 1,525,168 voters.
