IT firm gives workers day off to register

MANILA, Philippines—An IT company is giving out tickets to Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, “Inglourious Basterds,” and a day off in a bid to get its employees to register for next May’s elections.

The drive by Nexus, a business outsourcing firm and its subsidiaries, is a response to a call by the Makati Business Club and the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines on the private sector to drum up support for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to get voters to register for next year’s balloting.

As part of its 100-percent voter registration program, Nexus has allowed its 200 employees from four subsidiaries to take a paid day off from the last week of July to Sept. 15 to register in their districts, said Nexus executive Jaime Garchitorena.

He said the group was also asking those who had voted in the past elections to submit proof that they were registered voters. They, too, are entitled to a paid day away from work, he said.

“If you have been voting in the past two elections, you get a reward for that,” Garchitorena told the Inquirer.

“I’m encouraging them to take a leave on Friday, for instance. Or they can rush to beat the 6 p.m. deadline on Thursday so they can have a day off on Friday and take a long weekend.”

The paid one-day leave can be scheduled until December.

Aside from the paid day off, the first 50 employees who have proof that they are allowed to vote in the 2010 polls will get free movie tickets.

Pinky Piedad, Nexus marketing manager, said the company is thinking of giving out tickets to “Inglourious Basterds,” which is coming out in November.

“This is our way of being good corporate citizens. [Voting] is part of our responsibilities as citizens of the country,” she said.

Looking for change

So far, response to the registration project has been “good,” Piedad said.

Garchitorena, who is also part of youthvotephilippines.com, said there was great interest among youth voters about next year’s polls.

“All elections are benchmarks … but one important thing about this is that we’re looking forward to a change,” he said.

The Nexus executive said other companies should develop schemes to allow their employees and managers to register during weekdays, when the lines at local Comelec offices are shorter.

“If you want a government that represents you, then vote,” he said.

Day off scheme urged

Concerned that turnout in voter registration remained low, Kabataan party-list Rep. Raymond Palatino Monday filed a resolution calling on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to instruct public and private firms to implement a day off with pay scheme to encourage workers to register to vote.

“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,” Palatino said.

He said this was part of his group’s campaign to encourage first-time voters and youth voters to participate in the elections.

The campaign, dubbed Isang Milyon, Isang Panata, aims to collect 1 million registrants—about a thousand new voters per town—before registration ends.

“It is the responsibility of DOLE to ensure that employees nationwide not be disenfranchised in the coming 2010 elections because of this limitation [of not having the time to register],” he said.

If possible, employers could also provide rewards to workers who would exercise their civic duty, he said, pointing to the Nexus example.

Registration slow

Palatino noted that the Comelec had only signed up 841,200 new registrants.

Earlier, he asked the Comelec to move the registration deadline to Dec. 15 from Oct. 30 so that more people would be able to register.

In the 2007 mid-term elections, there were some 45 million voters. For next year’s elections, the poll body is targeting around 3 million to 5 million more voters.

Commissioner Armando Velasco said the increase in the number of voters was only 5 to 10 percent every election year, too small considering the country’s adult population.

He urged eligible voters not to wait until the last day to register. –Leila Salaverria, Kristine L. Alave, Philippine Daily Inquirer