• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Authorities have started making preparations to move thousands of voters from Kanlaon-affected communities to their alternative voting sites, with less than a week to go before the May 12 elections
A total of 4,982 voters in seven barangays of La Castellana and the cities of La Carlota and Bago in Negros Occidental, who have been temporarily displaced by eruption of Kanlaon Volcano, will be transported to the alternative polling precincts to cast their votes during the May 12 elections, Donato Sermeno III, Office of the Civil Defense regional director for Negros Island Region disclosed on Monday.
Sermeno said the Commission on Elections has issued the authority for the concerned local government units to provide transport vehicles marked with Comelec banners, to ferry the voters from evacuation centers to their designated polling centers.
A total of 1,784 voters of barangays Biak Na Bato, Cabagna-an, Mansalanao, and Sag-ang, all in La Castellana, who are staying in various evacuation centers, will vote at Don Felix Robles Elementary School, La Castellana National High School, La Castellana Elementary School, Saint Vincent Ferrer High School, and La Castellana Senior High School, while the 332 voters of Brgy. Masulog, also in La Castellana, will cast their votes at the evacuation center, according to Comelec records.
Sermeno said that makeshift polling precincts will also be established in evacuation centers.
The Dona Hortensia Benedicto National High School Senior, La Carlota SPED Integrated School, and Cubay Elementary School have been designated as the polling precincts for 718 voters of barangays Araal and Yubo in La Carlota City.
Sermeno said the designated voting centers for internally displaced persons (IDPs) are outside of the extended 6 kilometer permanent danger zone of Kanlaon Volcano.
A total of 2,102 voters in Brgy. Ilijan, Bago City will be transported to their voting precincts at the Ramon Torres Louisiana National High School in Brgy. Maao of the city, Comelec records further indicated.
During his visit to Negros Occidental on May 1, Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia said that they are determined to push through with the May 12 national and local elections in Kanlaon Volcano affected communities, even in the event of a major eruption.
“At all costs, the Comelec and its partners must find a way to have elections,” Garcia stressed.*
