Resolution No. 9904

WHEREAS, Republic Act. No. 10632 (AN ACT TO POSTPONE THE SANGGUNIANG KABATAAN ELECTIONS ON OCTOBER 28, 2013, AMENDING FOR THE PUROSE REPUBLIC ACT. NO 9340, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES) postponed the SK Elections to a date to be determined by the Commission on Elections (Commission) between October 28, 2014 and February 23, 2015;

WHEREAS, the Commission on the October 08, 2013, promulgated Resolution No. 9791 (IN THE MATTER OF THE INITIAL IMPLEMENTATION OF REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10632 POSTPONING THE OCTOBER 28, 2013 SANGGUNIANG KABATAAN (SK) ELECTIONS);

WHEREAS, pursuant to Rep. Act No. 10632, the Commission fixes the date of SK Elections on February 21, 2015, to allow enough time for planning and preparations;

WHEREAS, as of July 2013, there were a total of THREE MILLION ONE HUNDRED NINETY NINE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED FIFTEEN (3,199,315), registered members of the Katipunan ng Kabataan. Out of said data, ONE MILLION TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED FORTY NINE (1,282,849) comprising those who have turned eighteen (18) or will be turning eighteen (18) on or before the February 21, 2015 SK Elections, will be deleted from the List of Voters during the October 20, 2014, Elections Registration Board (ERB) hearings;

WHEREAS, the ten (10) day registration period from September 20, 2014 to September 29, 2014, complied with the provision of Section 8, Rep. Act. No. 9189 (AN ACT PROVIDING FOR A GENERAL REGISTRATION OF VOTERS, ADOPTING A SYSTEM OF CONTINUING REGISTRATION, PRESCRIBING THE PROCEDURES THEREOF AND AUTHORIZING THE APPROPRIATIONS OF FUNDS THEREFOR), which states that no registration shall be conducted one hundred twenty (120) days before a regular elections and ninety (90) days before a special elections. The incremental SK registration yielded a total of EIGHT HUNDRED THRITY FIVE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED THRITY NINE (835, 839) applicants;

WHEREAS, the non-synchronization of the SK Elections with the 2016 Barangay Elections, necessarily entails expenses in the deployment of security, other logistical concerns and more importantly in the hiring of the members of the Board of Election Tellers (BETs). It is highly impractical to assign one (1) BET for every established precinct which may have a very minimal number of registered voters. Hence, the need to resort to clustering/ grouping of precincts;

NOW, THEREFORE, the Commission pursuant to the powers vested in it by the Constitution, the Omnibus Elections Code, Rep. Act No. 9340 as amended by Rep. Act. No. 10632 and other related laws, RESOLVED, as it hereby RESOLVES, to:

1. PROMULGATE the following guidelines for the clustering/ grouping of precincts in the preparation of the Project of Precincts (POPs) to be utilized in the February 21, 2015 SK Elections, to wit:
   1. Only established precincts of the same barangay which have the same voting center shall be clustered/ grouped. In the preparing the POPs, the specific name and location or address of the polling place/ voting center shall be indicated; and
   2. Daughter precincts shall, as far as practicable, be clustered/ grouped with their mother (original) precincts. Spin-off/ daughter precincts shall be created when the number of SK voters already exceeds the limit of TWO HUNDRED (200) registered voters per established precinct.
      
      To create spin-off/ daughter precinct, shall be encoded:
      
      
      1. The Arabic numeral part of the established precinct; and
      2. The suffix alphabet, beginning with "A", "B" and so on.
   
   For the instance, if the precinct SK-1 already exceeds TWO HUNDRED (200) voters, after deletion of the registration records of those who are already 18 or turning 18 years of age on or before February 21, 2015, the spin-off/ daughter precinct shall be SK-1A. To be encoded in the system as precinct number of said spin-off/ daughter is "1A". Sample POP format is hereto attached as Annex "A";
   
   3. Two (2) to four (4) established precincts may be clustered/ grouped to comprise on (1) clustered SK Precincts, but the number of registered voters shall not exceed FIVE HUNDRED (500);
2. DIRECT the Provincial Elections Supervisors (PESs) and the Regional Election Directors (REDs) for NCR, Zamboanga City and Davao City, to consolidate the SK Final POPs of the cities and municipalities under their jurisdiction and submit the same by the fastest means available (Fax at -525-49-29/ 525-56-92 or e-mail at ebad@comelec.gov.ph) to the Elections and Barangay Affairs Department (EBAD) on or before November 05, 2014, in accordance with the Timelines, hereto attached as Annex "B".
   
   To ensure compliance, the deadline set for the submission of the POPs the REDs, AREDs, and PESs shall supervise and monitor the implementation of this Resolution. The REDs in NCR and the cities of Zamboanga and Davao, shall be held directly responsible for the non-submission of the POPs, while in other areas, it shall be the PESs.


3. DIRECT the EBAD to submit the SK Final POP to the Commission En Banc for approval on November 17, 2014.

This resolution shall take effect seven (7) days after its publication. The Education and Information Department (EID) shall cause the publication of this Resolution in two (2) daily newspapers of general circulation in the Philippines.

Let the Election and Barangay Affairs Department implement this Resolution.

SO ORDERED.

• BRILLIANTES, SIXTO S., Chairman
• TAGLE, LUCENITO N., Commissioner
• YUSOPH, ELIAS R., Commissioner
• LIM, CHRISTIAN ROBERT S., Commissioner
• PARREÑO, AL A., Commissioner
• GUIA, LUIE TITO F., Commissioner
• LIM, ARTHUR D., Commissioner