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Why this senior citizen worries about his voter’s ID
MANILA – A senior citizen and retired university professor who has voted for at least seven Philippine presidents since 1965 is worried that he may not be able to vote in the coming May 9 general and local elections.
Teodoro P. Reyes, who is turning 79 years old on April 28, has received a notification from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) informing him that his registration record as a voter of the Quezon City-National Capital Region-Second District, is currently under review.
A resident of Villa Nova Subdivision in Barangay Nagkaisang Nayon, Novaliches, Quezon City, Reyes is worried because the notification can be interpreted as invalidating his voter’s identification number issued by the poll body during the time of retired Comelec Chairman Sixto S. Brillantes Jr.
Reyes, a former head of the Electrical Engineering Department of the Rizal Technological University in Mandaluyong City, told the Philippine News Agency that he used the same voter’s ID when he voted in the previous elections in May 2019 at Nagkaisang Nayon Elementary School in Novaliches.
He showed to this writer his voter’s ID, with Precinct No. 2491C, together with that of his wife, Nelia S. Reyes, who has been voting with him in the same school since they moved to Novaliches in 1989 from Barangay Sta. Teresita in Sta. Mesa Heights, Quezon City.
Born on April 28, 1943, Reyes first voted in November 1965 when he was 22 years old. At that time, the voting age was still 21 years under the 1935 Constitution.
Since that election, which was won by the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos, Reyes said he has voted in all national and local elections which saw the successive victories of Presidents Corazon C. Aquino, Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph E. Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Benigno S. Aquino III, and Rodrigo R. Duterte.
He is hoping that he would not have any problem when he goes to his voting precinct at the Nagkaisang Nayon Elementary School on May 9 and shows his voter’s ID to the Board of Election Inspectors.
