DAGUPAN CITY (PIA) – Around 1,000 students from nine campuses of Pangasinan State University (PSU) joined the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) Voter Education and Registration Fair conducted on Monday at the PSU-Lingayen’s Convention Hall.
Lawyer Reddy Balarbar, assistant regional director of Comelec Region 1, emphasized that this kind of activity will benefit voters by bringing Comelec services directly to barangays, malls, schools, and colleges, making it easier for unregistered voters who cannot visit election officers’ offices.
During the fair, the students were educated about their right to suffrage and encouraged to participate in the ongoing registration.
Joward Medina, a 21-year-old student and president of the Supreme Student Council at PSU- Bayambang Campus, expressed his gratitude to Comelec for organizing an information campaign to promote voter rights and educate students about their civic duty to vote.
“Voting is very crucial, so it is only right that we exercise our right to vote because our safety and the quality of leadership depend on our voting decisions,” Medina said.
Balarbar said the Register Anywhere Program (RAP) was also introduced during the activity, allowing the participants to register regardless of their current residence.
He said the RAP gives convenience to unregistered voters.
Twenty-two students took advantage of the service to become additional registered voters.
He urged all unregistered and eligible voters to register at their respective Comelec offices, as registration is only open until September 30, 2024, while RAP will be available until August 30, 2024.
Shiena May Carolina, a business administration student at PSU-Lingayen Campus, stated that the RAP simplified her voter registration process because she no longer had to travel back to her hometown.
“Dahil sa ganitong activity ng Comelec, as someone na nag-aaral and presently living in Lingayen, ay hindi ko na kailangan pang magtravel pabalik ng hometown ko, which is sa Bolinao pa, para maging isang ganap na registered voter,” she told the Philippine Information Agency-Pangasinan.
(As someone who is studying and presently living in Lingayen, I no longer need to travel back to my hometown, which is in Bolinao, to become a fully registered voter because of this activity by the Comelec.)
Meanwhile, lawyer Marino Salas, provincial election supervisor of Comelec-Pangasinan, said about 67,000 individuals were recorded as new registrants, but their office targets to register about 75,000 to 100,000 qualified voters in the province.
Salas urged the public to participate in similar voter education and registration fairs in their respective areas to avoid long lines during the final days of registration.
He added that the public can check the Facebook pages of their local Comelec offices for the schedule of satellite registrations at various sites and barangays in the province and download forms from the Comelec website at www.comelec.gov.ph. (AMB/RPM/PIA Pangasinan)
