Foreign observers visited the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) on Monday — election day — as part of their monitoring mission during the national and local polls.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairperson George Garcia, who also visited the prison, said the observers were monitoring voting procedures for incarcerated individuals.

“This is one of the areas they chose to observe,” Garcia said. “They had no trouble getting in, and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) coordinated properly. However, we reiterated that voters must not be approached while casting their votes — basic respect.”  

A total of 3,446 BuCor inmates nationwide were eligible to vote, with 1,423 from NBP, primarily from the maximum-security compound.

Garcia clarified that these inmates have pending appeals and have not received final convictions, allowing them to exercise their right to vote under Philippine law.

“Just because they’re in prison doesn’t mean they’re no longer Filipino citizens or registered voters,” Garcia said.

“A final judgment is needed before someone can be stripped of the right to vote,” he added.

Garcia also clarified that the ballots cast at NBP will not be processed on site and instead, they will be transported to the voters’ original precincts and fed into vote-counting machines.