A tale of three disenfranchised voters

RECEIVING a letter from a politician enumerating his achievements and expressing his hope of being elected a third time was no surprise for me. It was, after all, election time again, and candidates would go to such lengths as to publicize their “resumés” just to get voters to “hire” them again as their public servants.

But it came as a shock to me when I got this mail from Councilor Ramon “Toto” Medalla of the second district of Quezon City with the heading of the letter having our address but an addressee’s name not corresponding to mine, or to any of my relatives’. On top of that, no one in our family is a registered voter. Why was our address in an election database?

I am not politically inclined, and I seldom meddle with things that have nothing to do with me. But this letter had address. It gave me the itch to get to the bottom of things even if it cost me my week’s allowance and added to the wear and tear of my old but still reliable Chucks. It roused the sleuth in me that had been in hibernation.

With the help of my internship advisers, reality started taking over my dream. I was asked to find out who Shyra Q. Agasang was, the name on the letter.

And so on election day, I was at the San Bartolome Elementary School in Novaliches as early as 5:30 a.m. Luckily, Shyra Agasang’s precinct number (2643A) was also printed on the letter so I didn’t have a hard time scouring for her name among the 66 precincts.

I talked to poll watchers, chatting with them like casual friends. In no time, I was sitting next to other members of the board and inches away from the chairman. I observed, and one poll watcher did, too, that voting in that precinct was unorganized. People had no idea where to go and who to approach unless you ask repeatedly.

Three…five…seven hours passed and my subject was nowhere to be found. I was told to check whether there were other voters with the same surname as hers and I found seven. Six of them were assigned in one precinct (2658A) and one was in 2656A. I checked the Agasangs in 2658A, all of them lived on the same street which was 8 Gemini. Mine was 8 Gamma but in a different subdivision in Novaliches. With that piece of information, I surmised that since registrations are handwritten before being typed into a computer system, Gemini could have been entered as Gamma. I crossed out the flying voter suspicion.

I assumed the Agasangs in 2658A were the girl’s relatives. They were, although I wondered why three were still part of the voters’ list when one had died last June while two have been out of the country since four to five years ago. I gave them my contact number for Shyra to call. Hours later, she called and we decided to meet up.

Then 18, Shyra registered as a voter in 2003. In the presidential elections the following year, she says she noticed the wrong address in her voter registration and raised the issue with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) through her precinct’s BEIs. She was told they will correct the problem as soon as possible.

Apparently, the Comelec wasn’t able to act on it “as soon as possible.” This election, she looked for her name among the 66 precincts at the San Bartolome Elementary School. It was almost three in the afternoon. “Sayang yung isang boto ko,” (My one vote went to waste) Shyra said. She wasn’t able to find her name.

I also came across another victim of the Comelec’s neglect. A neighbor, Ricardo Enriquez, 25, scoured the school’s 66 election precincts. His name was not in any of them, even in Comelec’s official list.

“May pruweba akong rehistrado ako!” Enriquez exclaimed. “Paanong magkakaroon ako ng kopya ko [ng registration] kung wala silang kopya?“(I registered. How can I have a copy of my voter’s registration if they don’t have it on file?”)

Ironically, even a volunteer poll watcher, Amelia Navarro of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, had the same experience as Enriquez. They headed for home complaining about how the Comelec has been consistently inefficient in protecting their right to suffrage.

The PCIJ assigned intern Carmela Ledesma, a third year journalism student at the University of Sto. Tomas, to cover voting in precincts at the San Bartolome Elementary School in Novaliches on Election Day.