Short answer. Not by itself. Where the sentence carried prision mayor, the law says the disqualification from suffrage is suffered even though the offender is pardoned as to the principal penalty. It ends only if the pardon expressly remits it, so the wording of the document decides.
What the law says
shall carry with it that of temporary absolute disqualification and that of perpetual special disqualification from the right of suffrage which the offender shall suffer although pardoned as to the principal penalty, unless the same shall have been expressly remitted in the pardon
Revised Penal Code, Article 42 — Accessories Of Prision Mayor. Read the full provision →
The disqualification is written to survive the pardon
Article 42 sets out the accessory penalties of prision mayor, and it is unusually explicit about what a pardon does not reach. The penalty shall carry with it that of temporary absolute disqualification and that of perpetual special disqualification from the right of suffrage which the offender shall suffer although pardoned as to the principal penalty, unless the same shall have been expressly remitted in the pardon. That clause is doing real work. Ordinarily an accessory penalty simply follows the principal one; here the drafters anticipated the pardon and provided that forgiveness of the imprisonment leaves the loss of the vote standing on its own footing.
Why the wording of the document matters more than the fact of it
Because the exception is unless the same shall have been expressly remitted in the pardon, the question is not whether you were pardoned but what the instrument actually says. A pardon that speaks only of releasing you from the remaining term, or that is silent about accessory penalties, leaves the suffrage disqualification in place by the terms of the article itself. Read the document you were issued in full, including any clause listing the penalties or the civil rights it restores. That sentence — not the headline that a pardon was granted — is what anyone examining your qualification will look at.
Two disqualifications, and only one of them is perpetual
The article attaches two things to this penalty. Temporary absolute disqualification is bounded in time. Perpetual special disqualification from the right of suffrage is not, and it is the one that concerns voting: it is described as perpetual, and as special, meaning it is confined to that particular right rather than sweeping across all of them. The two are easily confused, because the same sentence triggers both and both are called disqualifications. The practical difference is large — the passage of time can exhaust one of them and does nothing whatever to the other.
What settles it in your own case
Three documents answer this. The judgment, which shows the principal penalty actually imposed — this article governs prision mayor, so a different penalty is a different question with a different answer. The pardon itself, read closely for any express remission. And your registration record, which shows what the roll currently reflects. Put those together before assuming either way. A person who registers while disqualified and a person who stays away while in fact eligible are both in an avoidable position, and what separates them is usually one clause in a paper already in the file.
Related provisions
- Revised Penal Code, Article 42 — Accessories Of Prision Mayor
- Revised Penal Code, Article 41 — Accessory Penalties Of Reclusion