Poll bet faces disqualification for padding barangay voters’ list

MANILA, Philippines —  For issuing barangay certificates to non-residents, a barangay chairman from Cagayan de Oro City faces a disqualification complaint and may no longer be able to run in next year’s congressional race.

In a 16-page petition, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Legal Department sought the disqualification of Rainier Joaquin Uy, who is running for representative of the 1st District of Cagayan de Oro City in the May 2025 polls.

According to the Comelec law department, Uy “willfully and maliciously” employed the fraudulent scheme of issuing barangay certifications even to non-residents of Barangay Carmen to influence and induce them to register as voters in that barangay, to purposely give due advantage to his candidacy for the elections.

The law department said there was an “implausible influx” of application for registration in Barangay Carmen and unexplainable number of applicants, who used barangay certifications issued by Uy in support of their application for registration.

It further noted that the procedure done for issuance of barangay certifications was marked by inconsistencies and irregularities.

“These dubious barangay certifications indubitably incite the registrants to apply for registration in Barangay Carmen, although they do not possess the residency requirement in the said barangay prescribed by law... (These are) all badges of fraud attributed to the Respondent,” the Comelec pointed out.

Comelec said there is no other individual that can best benefit from employing such a scheme than Uy and his congressional bid.

The poll body previously formed a special task force to look into the questionable high number of voter registrants in Barangay Carmen.

Investigation showed that out of 21,854 applications received for the entire voter registration period, 8,218 or 37.60 percent of the applicants used barangay certification as their valid identification.

Of the applications using barangay certifications, a total of 1,161 applications were disapproved in Barangay Carmen for failure to appear before the Election Registration Board and to satisfactorily prove residency in Carmen.

The Comelec conducted the investigation based on the