Tags: Crime and Punishment, Elections
By Alexander Villafania
ANTIPOLO CITY, RIZAL – Despite being in jail, 41- year old detainee Victorio Anclote, Jr. he says he’s been able to gather information about candidates by reading newspapers or watching television.
“Don’t worry, we know who we will vote for,” he assures me, speaking for his fellow inmates.
Anclote is one of approximately 600 inmates at the Antipolo City who will cast their votes on May 10. On Friday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) conducted a dry run of the elections for detainees at the city jail here.
This will be the first time that detainees will be allowed to vote. Over 600 detainees from the Antipolo City Jail will be voting this coming May 10. Many of them are hoping to exercise their right despite being behind bars.
Anclote says voting would be the only thing that they could exercise as citizens of the country. “It’s not a total loss because as voters we are free to vote for the people who we believe will give what’s due to this country,” he says.
Another detainee, Angelito Gonzaga, says he’s already listed the candidates he will be voting for on May 10, adding he is satisfied with the progress towards automation. He said the jail wardens, with the help of Comelec officials, have been informing them about how the automated poll automations work, particularly on the method of using the new ballot sheets.
Both Gonzaga and Anclote are hoping that along with a new election system in place, the government should also make changes in the living conditions of inmates.
“We may be prisoners but we hope our votes won’t be wasted. We have a lot of things we want changed even here in prison, although there have been improvements, such as new wards,” Anclote says.
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