• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Authorities have started making preparations to move thousands of voters from Mt. Kanlaon-affected communities to alternative voting sites less than a week before the May 12 national and local elections.
A total of 4,982 voters in seven barangays of La Castellana, cities of La Carlota and Bago in Negros Occidental, who have been displaced by the volcanic eruption, will be transported to alternative polling precincts for them to cast their votes, Donato Sermeno III, regional director of the Office of Civil Defense-Negros Island Region, said on Monday, May 5.
Sermeno said the Commission on Elections issued an authority for the concerned local government units to provide transport vehicles to ferry the voters from evacuation centers to their designated polling centers.
In La Castellana, 1,784 voters of barangays Biak Na Bato, Cabagna-an, Mansalanao, and Sag-ang, who are staying in various evacuation centers, will vote at Don Felix Robles Elementary School, La Castellana National High School, La Castellana Elementary School, Saint Vincent Ferrer High School and La Castellana Senior High School.
The 332 voters of Barangay Masulog will cast their votes at the evacuation center.
Sermeno said that makeshift polling precincts will also be established in the evacuation centers.
In La Carlota City, the Doña Hortensia Benedicto National High School Senior, La Carlota SPED Integrated School and Cubay Elementary School have been designated as the polling precincts for 718 voters of barangays Ara-al and Yubo.
A total of 2,102 voters in Barangay Ilijan, Bago City will be transported to their voting precincts at the Ramon Torres Louisiana National High School in Barangay Ma-ao.
Sermeno said the designated voting centers for internally displaced persons are outside of the extended six-kilometer permanent danger zone. | GB
