Resolution No. 8647

WHEREAS, Republic Act No 9369 authorizes the Commission on Elections to use automated election system or systems that will ensure the secrecy and sanctity of the ballot and all election, consolidation and transmission documents in order that the process shall be transparent and credible and that the results shall be fast, accurate and reflective of the genuine will of the people;

WHEREAS, the Commission foresees the shortage of polling places and insufficiency of appointees to the Board of Election Inspectors;

WHEREAS, in order to remedy the shortage, the Commission will have to cluster/group established precincts;

NOW, THEREFORE, the Commission, by virtue of the powers vested in it by the Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines; the Omnibus Election Code; R.A. No. 8189; and other election laws, RESOLVED, as it hereby RESOLVES, to promulgate the following guidelines on the clustering/grouping of established precincts:

1. Precincts to be clustered/grouped shall be contiguous and belong to the same barangay and same voting center;
2. The mother and daughter precincts shall, as far as practicable, belong to the same clustered/grouped precincts;
3. Clustered/grouped precincts shall not exceed five (5) precincts taking into account the equitable distribution of the number of registered voters per precinct and the aggregate number of registered voters in the clustered/grouped precincts shall not exceed One Thousand (1,000);
4. Each clustered/grouped precinct shall be assigned one (1) Board of Election Inspectors;
5. The individual precinct number of clustered/grouped precincts shall be retained;
6. Each precinct shall maintain its own Election Day Computerized Voters List (EDCVL), Precinct Computerized Voters List (PCVL) and Book of Voters. In no case shall the List of Voters and Book of Voters of clustered/grouped established precincts be consolidated or combined;
7. The voters shall be notified and informed of the location of their polling places;
8. The Election Officer shall prepare the Project of Precincts (after clustering/grouping) for the May 10, 2010 National and Local Elections following the attached format, and submit the same to their respective Provincial Election Supervisor (PES) on or before November 30, 2009; and
9. The PES shall personally deliver the Projects of Precincts of the entire province to the Election and Barangay affairs Department on or before December 4, 2009, without extension.

RESOLVED, moreover, to direct the Regional Election Directors (RED), Assistant Regional Election Directors (ARED) and the Provincial Election Supervisors (PESs') to supervise their Election Officers (EO's) in the clustering/grouping process. The RED, ARED and PES shall be held responsible for the non-submission of the required Project of Precincts within the prescribed period to the Election and Barangay Affairs Department. Likewise, the EO shall be primarily responsible for the non-submission or for the deliberate submission of inaccurate Project of Precincts.

Let the Election and Barangay Affairs Department implement this resolution.

SO ORDERED.