MANILA – The House of Representatives on Monday approved on the third and final reading a bill allowing qualified senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), lawyers and health workers to vote early in local and national elections.
House Bill No. 7576, which was a consolidation of 15 separate measures filed in the current 19th Congress, grants senior citizens, PWDs, lawyers and human resources for health to cast their ballots at accessible establishments designated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) within seven working days before the date set for local and national elections.
Human resources for health is defined as those “who are engaged in health and health-related work, and all persons employed in all hospitals, sanitaria, health infirmaries, health centers, rural health units, barangay health stations, clinics and other health-related establishments owned and operated by the government or its political subdivisions with original charters and shall include medical, allied health professional, administrative and support personnel employed regardless of their employment status who physically report to the frontlines during the day of the election.”
“In consideration of their respective physical and health conditions, senior citizens and PWDs shall be allowed to vote early in national and local elections,” read Section 2 of the measure.
“Similarly, in consideration of the necessity of providing professional services and ensuring the health and safety of the populace during election day, lawyers and human resources for health, respectively, shall be allowed to vote early in national and local elections,” it added.
HB 7576 mandates the conduct of a nationwide registration for senior citizens, PWDs, lawyers, and human resources for health to qualify them to avail of this early voting privilege. Those who are not registered under this Act shall vote with the rest of the eligible population on election day.
Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez hailed the progress of the measure which, if enacted, would benefit disadvantaged sectors as well as those that render indispensable services to Filipinos.
“By default, senior citizens and PWDs encounter more difficulty in the electoral process. They deserve more assistance in the language of the law and HB No.7576 provides them with this in the form of voting early and separate from the vast majority of Filipinos,” Romualdez said.
“On the other hand, our lawyers and human resource for health perform duties of great urgency and impact on other citizens. As such, the benefit of early voting for them is both deserved and called for,” he added
Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto said HB 7576 sends a message that no citizen should be denied of his right to vote on account of his work, age or physical traits.
“Disability should not be a cause of disenfranchisement. By making it easier for them to vote, this bill, in effect, provides access ramps to democracy. And to seniors, handicaps brought by age, if any, should not be a hurdle to voting,” the Batangas 6th District Representative said in explaining his vote.
He added that the bill also ensures that medical personnel would not be denied the opportunity to vote by their fidelity to their job.
“To these sectors, this bill seeks to create ease in their voting by instituting early voting for them,” Recto said.
Hi, I check your new stuff like every week. Your humoristic style is
witty, keep up the good work!
Thanks for a marvelous posting! I certainly
enjoyed reading it, you’re a great author.I will be sure to bookmark your blog and will often come back from now on. I want
to encourage you to ultimately continue your great posts,
have a nice holiday weekend!
Greetings! Very helpful advice in this particular
post! It is the little changes which will make the largest changes.
Thanks for sharing!
I am really impressed with your writing skills as well as with the
layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize
it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to see a great blog like this one these days.
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know
so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something.
I think that you can do with a few pics to drive the message home
a bit, but other than that, this is fantastic blog.
An excellent read. I will certainly be back.
We stumbled over here by a different website and thought I
might check things out. I like what I see so i am just following you.
Look forward to finding out about your web page yet again.
Amazing! Its genuinely awesome article, I have got much clear idea regarding
from this piece of writing.
What’s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I have found It absolutely helpful and
it has aided me out loads. I’m hoping to give a
contribution & help other users like its helped me. Good job.
Simply wish to say your article is as astonishing. The clearness in your post is just cool and i can assume you’re an expert on this subject.
Fine with your permission let me to grab your RSS feed to keep updated with
forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please carry on the rewarding work.
Excellent goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff
previous to and you are just extremely wonderful. I actually like what you’ve
acquired here, really like what you are stating and the way in which you say
it. You make it enjoyable and you still
take care of to keep it sensible. I can’t wait to read far more from
you. This is really a great site.
Great post. I was checking constantly this blog and I am impressed!
Extremely useful information specially the last part
🙂 I care for such info a lot. I was looking for this certain information for a very long time.
Thank you and best of luck.
An intriguing discussion is worth comment. I do think that you need to publish more about this
issue, it may not be a taboo subject but typically people do not talk about
such issues. To the next! Kind regards!!
Every weekend i used to pay a quick visit this web page, because i want
enjoyment, since this this web page conations truly pleasant funny stuff too.
Hello, after reading this remarkable article i am as well delighted to share my knowledge here with mates.
I always emailed this blog post page to all my friends,
because if like to read it afterward my contacts will too.