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Republic of the Philippines
COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS
Manila

RESOLUTION No. 6378

IN THE MATTER OF THE RESETTING OF ERB HEARINGS AND SUSPENSION OF VOTERS' VALIDATION

Promulgated: 21 October 2003

WHEREAS, on 17 October 2003, Directors Ferdinand T. Rafanan and Esmeralda Amora-Ladra, National Capital Region, submitted a Memorandum relative to the postponement of the 27 October 2003 hearing of the Election Registration Board and the request for the re-setting of the same sometime in November 2003.

WHEREAS, the Memorandum of Directors Rafanan and Amora-Ladra reads:

“This is to follow-up, Your Honor, on the agreement that was reached during our meeting with the Election Officers and Acting EOs of this region in Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club last 09 October 2003 to postpone the 27 October 2003 hearing of the Election Registration Board to a date to be fixed by Your Honor in November 2003.

It shall be recalled that said agreement was reached due to the lack of time for our officers to prepare all the necessary documents for the said hearing specially the timely return of the accomplished forms for validation/registration which they submitted to the Data Migration and Conversion Committee and the sending of notices to the six (6) major political parties.

Considering that we are ten (10) days away from the scheduled date of said ERB hearing, undersigned respectfully request that the said postponement be immediately approved in a resolution to be promulgated by the Honorable Commission En Banc.

Thank you!”

WHEREAS, on even date, Commissioner Mehol K. Sadain submitted a memorandum relative to the Election Registration Board Hearings, which reads:

“This has reference to the persistent inquiries coursed through our office from areas under our jurisdiction in the ARMM relative to the scheduled ERB hearings to begin ten (10) days from now.

The difficulty being experienced by our team of verifiers tasked with examining and verifying the data taken from the July 25-30 ARMM registration for the purpose of generating the lists of registered applicant and forwarding the same to the duly constituted ERBs has come to our attention. With the coming Islamic fast to begin on October 26, 2003 in observance of the Holy Month of Ramadan, undersigned CIC respectfully recommends to the Commission En Banc the resetting of the scheduled ERB hearings till after the holy month of Ramadan.

In this connection, the Office of Dir. Bartolome Sinocruz should come up with a new schedule taking into account the foregoing concerns for immediate approval by the Commission.

For the Commission En Banc’s approval.”

WHEREAS, there is a need to give ample time to qualified Filipino citizens registering for the first time and those applying for transfer of their registration records pursuant to Resolution No. 6294 promulgated on August 13, 2003;

WHEREAS, reports from field officials revealed that there are numerous qualified Filipino citizens registering for the first time and those applying for transfer of their registration records who cannot be accommodated due to the volume of registered voters who submit themselves for validation for the 2004 Elections; lªvvph¡1.ñét

NOW THEREFORE, the Commission RESOLVED, as it hereby RESOLVES, as follows:

1. to approve the following timelines relative to the applications for registration/validation nationwide:

APPLICATIONS FOR REGISTRATION / VALIDATION RECEIVED FROM:	LAST DAY TO POST NOTICE OF HEARING	LAST DAY TO FILE OPPOSITION	ELECTION REGISTRATION BOARDS HEARING DATE
August 4, 2003 (MON) to September 30, 2003 (TUE)	November 03, 2003 (MON)	November 10, 2003 (MON)	November 17, 2003 (MON)
October 1, 2003 (WED) to October 31, 2003 (FRI)	November 24, 2003 (MON)	November 30, 2003 (SUN)	December 08, 2003 (MON)

2. to suspend validation of voters in areas where the Data Capturing Machines (DCMs) are deployed effective immediately and to resume on November 2, 2003.

Let the Election and Barangay Affairs Department implement this Resolution.

SO ORDERED.

(Sgd.) BENJAMIN S. ABALOS, SR. Chairman
(Sgd.) LUZVIMINDA G. TANCANGCO Commissioner	(Sgd.) RUFINO S.B. JAVIER Commissioner
(Sgd.) RALPH C. LANTION Commissioner	(Sgd.) MEHOL K. SADAIN Commissioner
(Sgd.) RESURRECCION Z. BORRA Commissioner	(Sgd.) FLORENTINO A. TUASON, JR. Commissioner

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