MANILA, Oct. 14, 2009-The number of people registering to vote is remarkable which means there's high interests in next year's elections, said a Catholic Church-backed poll watchdog.
The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) chairperson Henrietta De Villa said they are optimistic they will be able to get the three million target registrants by Oct. 31.
As of Tuesday, the PPCRV along with the Commission on Elections and other organizations have already succeeded in registering 2.8 million people nationwide.
De Villa said many of the new registrants are first time voters.
With around two weeks left before the Oct. 31 deadline, the former Philippine ambassador to the Vatican expressed optimism that they would meet the target.
De Villa also said they are searching for student-leaders who are willing to offer help in the PPCRV's information campaign and encourage their peers to register and vote in 2010.
She said these students would help in convincing other students to participate in the registration process and exercise their right to vote come May 2010.
The PPCRV and the Comelec were at the University of the Philippines (UP) campus in Diliman today to ask students residing in the fourth district of Quezon City to register.
De Villa said that the UP is their last major destination in Metro Manila. In the coming days, they would concentrate their intensified efforts in the provinces.
The PPCRV and Comelec kicked off the voters' education and awareness drive in Dec 2008 at the University of Santo Tomas. They made succeeding campus tour in Ateneo de Manila, and San Beda College in Metro Manila. They also have already made several stops in the provinces including Ateneo de Naga.
The poll body only brought one registration machine to UP that can accommodate 200 registrants in one day.
De Villa said registering 200 people in one day is already an accomplishment because even the Comelec head office encounters difficulty in getting this number of people to apply because most the applicants have tight schedules.
"We had to bring our advocacy to the market place" or where the students can be found, she added. (CBCPNews)