Politics, COVID mar poll registration

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – A City Hall executive raised fears that the voter’s registration at the University of St. La Salle gymnasium, a designated satellite registration site here, might become a super-spreader event for COVID-19.

The USLS satellite registration of the Commission on Election (Comelec) started September 27 until Sept. 30, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

A huge crowd gathered at the area despite Comelec-Bacolod’s reminder to observe curfew hours and health protocols.

The poll body said only senior citizens, persons with disabilities, Indigenous People, pregnant women, medical frontliners, uniformed personnel, and those with online appointment will be accommodated at the center’s priority lane.

The registration period was supposed to end Sept 30 but it was extended until October 31 (except on October 1-8 which is reserved for the filing of candidacies) by the Comelec central office following clamors from lawmakers.

City Administrator Em Ang, executive director of the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) said the ongoing satellite registration is a “super spreader activity with the hundreds, if not thousands, of prospective out-of-town transferee-voters being unloaded from trucks, buses and ambulances and Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO) vehicles of different Negros local government units at the USLS grounds and Ayala Malls in the past two weeks.”

Ang also expressed alarm over reports from law enforcement agencies that out-of-towners are in violation of curfew hours as they mass up at the registration site as early as 12 am or 1 am.

Ang said this was the analysis of the Emergency Operations Center-Task Force (EOC-TF) as it pointed out that the spike in COVID-19 infections began with the onset of the voter registration.

“Is it just a coincidence?” Ang asked in a radio interview.

Ang said she has reasons to believe the ongoing voter registration has something to do with the surge of cases.

She recalled that two months ago, before these daily “hakot” registrants from out-of-town were being unloaded in satellite venues, Bacolod City cases slowed down with infections averaging everyday only between 20 to 30.

“Today, we are breaching the 100-mark daily and rising, on top of the death rate recorded at 122 as of September 28. We now have an extraordinary spike (of infections) and extraordinary spike in the number of deaths, too. It is also sad because in the list of fatalities were people I know personally. But it’s the reality,” she said.

Ang’s observation is somehow linked to claims that persons from Negros Occidental are registering to vote in Bacolod after former 3^rd district Negros Occidental congressman Albee Benitez declared his plan to challenge incumbent Mayor Evelio Leonardia.

Ang said that in the last two months, Bacolod City became a model for Western Visayas LGUs because of our low COVID cases. Some were adopting our strategies in the prevention and vaccination drive.

“But things changed when people from different towns and cities started to flock to Bacolod to transfer their Comelec registration. They were on board trucks and buses, while others were loaded on DRRMO vans owned by various LGUs. We, at the EOC, do not think it was mere coincidence. That was when the surge of COVID infections began,” she added.

“So who is responsible for bringing these transferee-registrants?” Ang continued to ask.

“I am very vocal about this because it is the city and the people of Bacolod who are most affected. I have seen the daily records, I have seen the data analysis of the EOC. It is very alarming. I get stressed everyday looking at the data. I’m afraid for all of us,” Ang said.

The EOC executive said that she is not trying to scare the Bacolodnons but from the data that the task force is analyzing every day, Bacolod is being surrounded by LGUs with higher cases.

Medical experts also believe that the sudden increase in the rise of COVID cases was because many of those coming from other areas, who freely sneak in and out of Bacolod are unvaccinated.

“If you look at the Department of Health records, it showed that as of September 28, the vaccination rate of Negros Occidental is only at 13 percent as against the Bacolod City’s vaccination rate of 50 plus percent coverage,” Ang said.

She also expressed alarm that with the reported extension of voter registration until October 31, COVID cases in Bacolod may turn for the worse. She noted that photos and video footages forwarded by concerned netizens to the EOC showed that those lining up at the USLS do not wear face masks properly and fail to observe proper physical distancing.

“I even doubt if Comelec even has thermal scanners to check on body temperatures, she said. (With a report from City PIO)