Comelec recently passed Resolutions 8668 and 8669, requesting the Civil Service Commission for government employees and the Department of Labor and Employment for private employees, respectively, to issue ‘appropriate orders, guidelines and/or circulars urging their employees to file their applications for voters’ registration’.

Palatino regards these resolutions as a positive development to House Resolution 1336 which he authored asking for the implementation of a ‘one-day off with pay to encourage employees to register for the 2010 elections’.

The Comelec resolutions cover employees who are first-time voters, or who “desire to transfer/reactivate/correct/change/reinstate their registration records.”

“We welcome this development and expect the CSC and DOLE to appropriately and immediately act on this. The clock is ticking, we have barely a month left before the deadline (for voters’ registration) on October 31,” Palatino said.

He added, “Employees who work during office hours do not have time to register. By the time their shift ends, government offices conducting voters’ registration have already closed. Companies should give their employees one day-off on or before the deadline for voters’ registration to ensure that they will be able to participate in the 2010 polls.”

Palatino, together with members and organizations under Kabataan Party-list, today embarked on a motorcade around Quezon City encouraging first-time voters to register on or before October 31.

“We call on the youth to register now as the first step to show that the youth is ready to participate and guard the 2010 elections,” he said.

This, he said, is still part of their “1 milyon, 1 panata” voters’ registration campaign, which aims to encourage one million first-time voters to register for the 2010 elections. (Visit http://panata.2010.com for details) ###