WHEREAS,
the holding of clean and honest elections depends in large measure on
the integrity of the lists of voters; chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
WHEREAS, the Commission on Elections has reported grave violations of
the registration law, to such extent that unless the Commission is
empowered to take drastic measures immediately to correct these
irregularities, the exercise of suffrage may not serve its purpose; and
WHEREAS, large scale irregularities in the registration of voters may
not be effectively corrected through exclusion proceedings.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines,
by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby
order and decree:cralaw:red
Section 1. Postponement or suspension of election. —
A new section to be known as "Section 6-A" shall be inserted between
Section 6 and 7 of the 1978 Election Code and shall read as
follows: chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
"Sec. 6-A. Postponement or suspension of election. —
Whenever the Commission finds that rampant irregularities have been
committed in the preparation of the book of voters through fraud,
bribery, forgery, impersonation, intimidation, force or any other
similar irregularity resulting in a large increase in the number of
registered voters in said voting center which is statistically
improbable, and as a consequence thereof, the holding of a free,
orderly and honest election shall become impossible in said voting
center, the Commission may, after summary verification, order the
postponement or suspension of the election in said voting center until
such time as it may deem necessary to enable it to make proper recourse
to purge spurious or illegally registered voters from the list of
voters."
Section 2. Section 98 of the 1978 Election Code is
hereby amended to read as follows:cralaw:red
"Sec. 98. Annulment of permanent list of voters. —
Any book of voters not prepared in accordance with the provisions of
this Code or the preparation of which has been effected with fraud,
bribery, forgery, impersonation; intimidation, force, or any other
similar irregularity may, MOTU PROPIO or upon verified petition of any
voter or election registrar, or duly registered or ACCREDITED political
party, group or aggrupation, be annulled THROUGH SUMMARY PROCEEDINGS,
by the Commission." chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Section 3. Effectivity. — This Decree shall take
effect immediately.
DONE in the City of Manila,
this 26th day of January, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and
eighty.
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