Is the biometric data used in voter identification at polling stations?

Only registrants whose biometrics (i.e. photograph, fingerprints and signature) have been successfully captured digitally using COMELEC's Voter's Registration Machine (VRM) during the filing application may be issued a voter's ID card. The voter ID cannot be printed without the biometrics data. Doing so would defeat the purpose because there will be no way of identifying the person to whom the ID belongs without an image of a face to connect it to. The voters identification card is being issued to the registered voter pursuant to Section 25 of Republic Act No. 8189. It shall serve as a document for his identification. In case of loss or destruction, no copy thereof may be issued except to the registered voter himself and only upon the authority of the Commission. The Voter ID card is a valid ID that is recognized by all government offices and banks for a person’s identification purposes. It is however not a requirement for a person to vote. Source 

Biometric Voter Registration and Voter Identification Consolidated Replies ACE Project

In the Philippines our election law DO NOT require the voter to have his/her ID to be presented to be able to vote because the voter is the person wanting to vote, not the ID and denying his/her right to vote because of a missing ID is a clear case of  disenfranchisement.  On the other hand, mandating that the ID as a strict requirement to be able to vote encourages cheaters to buy/rent the voters IDs before an election to commit election fraud. As long as the voter is in the voter's list for the polling center for the specific election he/she wants to vote and is properly identified by poll-workers as the same person in the list that he/she claims to be, he/she will be allowed to vote.  Given that, the identification/authentication challenge shifts to the EMB to have the high-integrity/correct(secure, accurate, current and complete) voter identification and authentication system to assure that only legitimate voters are allowed to vote on election day.  On this basis, a 3-phase automated voter identification programme for 50+ million (and growing at 2.5% annually) voters was started back in August 2003 employing 1) a front-end (field) biometrics (signature, four-finger fingerprint, photo) and demographics (name, address, etc.)information capture, 2) a back-end (central) voter list cleansing facility via an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) to remove replicated entries via fingerprint matching (having a 99.9+% match detection accuracy) and a front-end/on-line-real-time identity verification system on election day. Today, phases (1) and (2) are operational and phase (3) is still to be implemented.  Meanwhile, for each election since 2003, a centrally-printed current election-day voters list (as cleansed by the AFIS immediately prior election day) having the photo of each voter and a space to capture the voter's right-thumb fingerprint after he/she has voted is used as an interim solution each election. This system has been used in the national and mid-term elections of 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013 plus some regional and smaller special elections. 

Ernesto R. del Rosario, March 21. 2014