Wrong address: Ballot blunder delays voting in Misamis Oriental village

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Many voters stayed on, casting their ballots well into the night and early morning hours after election day because the ballots they got were meant for San Fernando town, Cebu

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – As dusk settled and polling centers across the country were about to shut their doors at 7 pm on Monday, May 12, hundreds of villagers in a Misamis Oriental town were only beginning to cast their ballots, defying the official timeline. 

In Barangay Maputi, Naawan town, a bureaucratic blunder left hundreds without ballots, and democracy waited in the dark for hours.

There, voters spent the entire day waiting, patiently, because the official ballots delivered to their precinct were meant for a barangay in San Fernando town, Cebu, according to Commission on Elections (Comelec) Northern Mindanao Regional Director Renato Magbutay.

“The members of the electoral board found out that the official ballots in their possession were for San Fernando, Cebu, on the afternoon of Sunday, May 11,” Magbutay said during a post-election forum in Cagayan de Oro on Wednesday, May 14.

He said the mistaken delivery was reported to the Comelec central office and the National Printing Office. Rather than locating the correct set of ballots for Maputi, Naawan, new ones were printed and rushed by air cargo to the affected voting center.

The replacement ballots arrived late on election day, but many voters – who had earlier signified their intent to vote – stayed on, casting their ballots well into the night and early morning hours the following day.

Voting for persons with special needs was scheduled from 5 am to 7 am on election day, followed by general voting from 7 am to 7 pm. But due to the delay, voters from four clustered precincts in Maputi Elementary School did so from 7 pm to 7 am the next day.

Boy Velez, Naawan municipal administrator, said the misdelivered ballots affected 763 registered voters under Precinct Nos. 33-A, 33-B, 34-A, and 34-B. They were assigned to a single classroom, under one cluster, equipped with an Automated Counting Machine (ACM) and designated electoral board members.

Velez said all affected voters were informed of the delay and agreed to wait for the correct ballots.

“This is the first time an election was delayed,” said Cocoy Panilag, a longtime voter from Maputi. “Fortunately, it only affected four precincts.” 

With a list of his preferred candidates in hand, Panilag said he finished voting in under 15 minutes after arriving at the polling place.

Magbutay said voter turnout in Misamis Oriental was relatively high – above the 82% regional average in Northern Mindanao. Provincial turnout was recorded at 86.8%, but Naawan posted the lowest in the province at 79.16%.

Naawan, which has 10 barangays, had 16,367 registered voters for the 2025 elections. A total of 12,948 cast their votes. – Rappler.com