Biometrics: Boon or Bane of Our Right to Suffrage

I remember when I was in college, I was so eager to vote for the first time for the 2010 national elections. My mother told me to go to the COMELEC Office during that summer of 2009 to register as a voter. It was a relatively painless process, as I was in and out of the Comelec satellite office in Makati in less than an hour. This was including filling up the form, encoding of the data into the database and taking of my picture and biometric information. Fast forward a few months after, my peers would be lining up to register when it was already days before the October 31, 2009 deadline. Hearing the stories of lining up for one whole day and failing to be accommodated due to the volume of people for that day. These experiences would have made the act of exercising the right of suffrage a bane for the potential voter registrants. 

Fast forward to 2013, President Benigno Aquino passes Republic Act 10367 or the Mandatory Biometrics Law where all registered voters are required to have their biometrics registered to be able to vote for the 2016 national elections. This is where the campaign of COMELEC "No Bio, No Boto Policy" campaign comes into play. COMELEC has been urging the voting population to actually check in their official website if their registration is complete with biometrics. Several infomercials and social media posts were shared in different social networking sites to raise the awareness of this campaign. The COMELEC even opened the biometric registration in several locations including shopping malls around the metro. Nonetheless, true to the Filipino behavior of delaying until the October 31 deadline is already near, people brushed off this campaign to the last minute. The same stories of long lines, frustrated people and malfunctioning equipment can be seen in the news. Hence, a petition for certiorari and prohibition was filed by the Kabataan Partylist and other youth groups last November 25, 2015 to the Supreme Court to strike the "no bio, no boto" policy as unconstitutional since according to the petitioners " it violates due process as it is an unreasonable deprivation of the constitutional right to vote for failure to register their biometric information despite existing and active registration". The main contention of the petition is that approximately 3 million voters who have failed to register their biometric information shall be ineligible to vote during the 2016 national elections. (1) 

 In December 1, 2015, the SC granted a TRO against the "No boto, no bio" policy postponing the preparation of the COMELEC regarding the 2016 national election since they will not be able to finalize the list of the voters. This was a temporary victory for the petitioners since the right of those who have not been able to register their biometric information will still have a chance to vote in the 2016 elections. (2) However on December 16, 2015, the SC ultimately junked the TRO against the "no boto, no bio policy" as it is not deemed as unconstitutional since it does not raise the registration requirement of eligible voters but is rather is just a qualification to cleanse the current voter registry and prevent future electoral fraud in the upcoming 2016 national elections. (3) 

With the lifting of the TRO against the biometric voter's registration, the COMELEC can now ultimately update and finalize the voters database since there are prevalent cases of ghost and flying voters from the previous elections. With the biometric registration, the COMELEC will be able to now cross check if the voters are still active and existing to date. Therefore, it should not be considered as a bane to the right of suffrage but rather a boon since the votes will be sure to have come from a unique individual who matches the biometric information registration which is a step closer hopefully to a cleaner and fraud-free 2016 national elections. 
Sources: 
 1. Declare ‘No Bio, No Boto’ unconstitutional, SC asked (Nov 26, 2015, Philippines) Last accessed from: http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/114575-sc-tro-comelec-biometrics-no-bio-no-boto 

 2.SC stops Comelec from dropping 2.5M voters without biometrics (Dec 1, 2015, Philippines) Last accessed from: http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/114013-no-bio-no-boto-unconstitutional-sc 

 3. SC junks petition vs 'No Bio, No Boto' policy (Dec 16, 2015, Philippines) Last accessed from: http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/116113-sc-junks-petition-against-no-bio-no-boto-policy