The Commission on Elections has asked the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to issue guidelines allowing private and public employees to register as voters even on weekdays and that their temporary absence from their work be considered as official time.

The COMELEC en banc, through Resolution Nos. 8669, promulgated September 15, 2009, noted that the DOLE is "bestowed with powers and functions for the full protection to labor, promotion of their welfare, and supervision over the relationship between employers and employees."

Thus the COMELEC deemed it necessary to "request the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to issue the appropriate circular/guidelines urging private employers to allow their employees to file their applications for registration, transfer/reactivation, changes/correction/inclusions/reinstatement of entries of registration records even during weekdays, and to consider their temporary absence from work on official time."

Meanwhile, the COMELEC in Resolution 8668, said that "government employees who as first time voters, or who desire to transfer/reactivate/correct/change/reinstate their registration records, deserve broader opportunities to exercise their right to suffrage through the filing of their applications for registration/transfer/reactivation/correction/change/reinstatement of registration records during weekdays."

The poll body also made a similar request to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to issue the appropriate order for civil servants.

COMELEC spokesman James Jimenez, for his part, said this move from the poll body "shows the COMELEC's resolve to empower broadest number of workers, both in the private and in the public sector, by making sure that they will be able to cast their votes in the 2010 elections." ###

POSTED: 09.16.2009 LTO, Updated: 01.20.2012 JJSH