MALAYBALAY CITY (BukidnonNews.Net/12 May 2025)— Elections in the city’s largest barangay went “peacefully” and “orderly” despite mishaps, according to volunteers of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting.
Jerry Manubag, a senior volunteer of the PPCRV in Casisang Central Integrated School, polling place to 7,700 voters here with 49 polling precincts and seven classrooms, said all concerns were addressed except for some mishaps.
The school is one of the two in the barangay that hosted polling precincts, the other was at the Airport Village Elementary School (AVES). The 10 PPCRV volunteers assigned in the school reported there as early as 4:30 a.m. Monday.
The PPCRV cited several incidents that voters brought up before them for assistance, including a male voter identified as “R.Y.” who was not able to cast his vote as somebody already signed after his name in the Election Day Computerized Voters’ List (EDCVL).
Archilles A. Mendoza II, another PPCRV Volunteer stationed in the school, said “R.Y.” asked for their assistance after being told he won’t be able to vote as the EDCVL already bears a signature. He said he has not yet voted and the signature is not his.
The chair of the electoral board and the poll clerk of the cluster of precincts concerned told BukidnonNews.Net around 4:30 p.m. Monday that there is no anomaly but an “honest mistake”. They confirmed the voter was not able to cast his vote but the signature possibly belonged to a relative, who voted proximate to the affected voter’s order in the EDCVL. They said the slip was unintentional due to the volume of voters.
The volunteers who recorded this as one of the significant mishaps in their polling place, said the “honest mistake” was at the expense of the affected voter.
Manubag said Comelec should require a valid ID in the next elections so that they can help ensure proper verification of voters. They listed the incident as a case of “stolen identity.”
The volunteers also noted that a woman identified as “A.I.” also complained that her name was not in the list despite being a consistent voter in past elections. As her account was tagged as “deactivated,” she was among those unable to vote.
But they cited that at least one of those who sought help from them was able to vote despite a mishap. In this case, the last letter of her family name was misspelled with an “a” instead of “o”.
Mendoza said the voter approached them around 10-10:30 a.m. after which she was referred to Comelec-Malaybalay. The misspelling was addressed and she was able to vote before noon.
The volunteers noted that PPCRV’s role has been limited to voters’ assistance compared to their previous roles which included election monitoring.
PPCRV’s poll-watching activities began with the 1992 presidential elections. Then, 346,688 volunteers participated in poll-watching, voters’ assistance, assisting the Board of Election Inspectors, protecting election returns, monitoring electoral exercise, and watching the canvassing of votes.
Manubag said even with their simplified role, “assisting voters on election day is still a worthwhile role.”
“Voters would be in disarray without volunteers. Many voters get confused especially with adjustments in the voters’ list and changes in the clustering of voters’ precincts,” he said in the vernacular. (BukidnonNews.Net)
The Casisang Central Integrated School polling place is the location of about 7,700 voters in Brgy. Casisang, Malaybalay City's biggest barangay in terms of land area and population.(BukidnonNews.Net photo)
Past 4 p.m., the seven precinct clusters here only have around 5-7 voters at a time. Voting started at 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., including the special hours allotted for senior citizens and other vulnerable voters. (BukidnonNews.Net photo)