The voters’ education campaign in the Cordillera being conducted by the Commission on Elections regional office in line with the May 9, 2022 national and local elections includes going to the grassroots to explain the importance of exercising one’s right to vote,especially the role of women in the elections.
Atty. Vanessa Roncal, Comelec-CAR spokesperson, said the voters’ education program aims to convince eligible citizens to register and join the upcoming elections.
Based on the official list of registered voters nationwide, there are 33,644,237 registered female voters and 32,076,993 are male totalling 65,721,230 registered voters.
Though there are more male registered voters in the Cordillera, 545,937 men and 531,963 women, in Baguio City women outnumbered the registered male voters with 93,219 female voters compared to 75,169 voters as of the Nov. 18, 2021 tally of Comelec Baguio.
“We would like to believe we have succeeded in our campaign convincing them to register, informing them of the importance of voting, and also the importance of women running for elective positions. We hope they will go out and let their votes be counted in the May 9 elections,” Roncal said.
During election day, she said Comelec-CAR is working on a program to have day care centers in the different barangays in the region open on May 9 to assist in addressing the reasons many women cannot go out of their home to vote.
“Among the reasons women who are mothers were not able to vote is there is no one to take care of their children. We are in the process of coordinating with daycare centers to open upang itong mga ina ay may pag-iwanan ng kanilang mga anak sandali para sila ay makaboto,” Roncal said.
For those who are heavily pregnant who may opt not to vote due to risks of going to crowded polling precincts, she said emergency accessible polling places will be set up for them along with persons with disability and senior citizens where they could vote without having to go crowded precincts.
Making voting accessible to the vulnerable sector is part of the Comelec’s policy of inclusivity and in maximizing their participation in the conduct of electoral exercises.
“We are trying to address women’s concerns because binibigyan natin ng importansya ang boto ng mga kababaihan anuman ang kanilang estado,” Roncal said. – Hanna C. Lacsamana
April 20, 2024
