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Twenty-year-old Zaira Vi Bernardio just wanted to register as a new voter for the 2010 elections. Frustrated over the long queues last Tuesday only to discover that Lapu-Lapu City election staff could not locate her registration form, she volunteered to look for it herself.
As she sorted through the disorganized forms and alphabetized them in the process, she ended up helping other new registrants find their own missing forms.
Before the end of the day, she became the Commission on Elections? (Comelec) latest volunteer staff for its Lapu-Lapu City office.
?I wasn?t doing anything while waiting for them to find my form. So I thought of helping out,? said Bernardio, an education student of the St. Theresa?s College in neighboring Cebu City.
But her assistance to the beleaguered Comelec staff did not stop there. After the office closed and she went home, she called out to her friends through the social networking site Facebook to also volunteer at the Comelec office.
At least 10 of her friends showed up at the Lapu-Lapu City Sports Complex yesterday, where the registration of new voters was being held. They helped out the regular Comelec Lapu-Lapu staff of 15 personnel. They promised to help out until the last day of registration, Oct. 31.
She said more of her friends committed to help out on Oct. 31 itself.
The Lapu-Lapu City Comelec offices have been serving at least a thousand new registrants a day since Monday, the staff said.
Bernardio admitted that her friends thought she was kidding at first. But when she pushed her point, they saw she was serious.
Yesterday, Bernardio was joined by friends Rizlee Arranguez and Ana Mariss Bongcaron, both Information Technology students from the University of San Carlos, as well as other friends from the University of Cebu in Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue campus.
The group said they were open to continue volunteering beyond the Oct. 31 deadline, all the way up to the May 2010 elections.
Lapu-Lapu City Elections Officer Ferdinand Gujilde admitted that his office has been overwhelmed by new registrants.
He blamed people?s tendency to act on the last minute.
?Even if the system is perfect, we cannot do anything if that happens,? Gujilde said.
Of the estimated 1,000 new registrants who flock to register daily, Gijulde said only 600 or 700 are able to complete the registration process. Some are turned away due to incomplete requirements.
Staff urged new registrants to bring valid identification cards as well as a lot of patience to make sure they are registered for the 2010 elections.
The registration opens at 8 a.m. and closes 9 p.m.
?On Oct. 31, people should expect to be turned away if we can no longer accommodate them,? he said. ?They had all the time since December 2008.?
He estimated an additional 20,000 voters for the 2010 elections, up from 141,000 in the 2007 elections.
Mandaue City faces a similar situation, said its election officer, Anna Fleur Abelgas-Gujilde, wife of the Lapu-Lapu City election officer.
Abelgas-Gujilde said she expected a 10,000 to 15,000 increase in the city?s voting population, up from 154,468 in 2007.
The Mandaue City Comelec office also accommodates around 700 new voters every day.
She said her office was running out of registration forms.
