Comelec targets 3 million new voters for 2028 elections

Commission on Elections (Comelec) personnel insert official ballots into machines for verification at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City on January 15, 2025.

STAR / Miguel De Guzman

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections is aiming to add about three million voters to the rolls for the 2028 national and local elections when registration reopens nationwide on Tuesday, November 10.

The country currently has 71 million registered voters, Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia told reporters on Thursday, November 5. 

If the poll body meets its target, that would bring the total number of voters to roughly 74 million for the highly anticipated May 2028 polls.

"We plan to register around three million voters," Garcia said in Filipino.

Registration will run until July 30, 2027. 

The national and local elections are set for May 8, 2028, while the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections are set for November 13 of the same year.

Garcia said the poll body moved the registration deadline up to July 30 from the originally planned September 30. 

The earlier cutoff gives the commission time to confirm that those who file certificates of candidacy are registered voters in the places where they intend to run, Garcia said.

Registration will not open on November 10 in Naga City, Camarines Sur, or in Batanes, where voters go to the polls later this month. 

Both areas will start accepting applications one week after their respective votes, Garcia said.

Naga will hold a plebiscite on November 21 to ratify its conversion into a highly urbanized city under Proclamation No. 1267, which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed in May. 

Batanes will hold a special election on November 28 to fill its lone congressional seat, left vacant after lawmaker Ciriaco Gato Jr. died in September. 

No cedula, barangay certificates

Garcia also warned applicants that Comelec will no longer accept a barangay certification or a community tax certificate, commonly called a cedula, as proof of identity.

"In the past, these were always included, but this time we will not allow a barangay certification as proof of a registrant's identity," he said in Filipino.

Applicants should instead present a government-issued ID, Garcia said. He listed student IDs, library cards, police and National Bureau of Investigation clearances, and senior citizen IDs as acceptable alternatives.

Registration will run Tuesdays to Fridays at local election offices and at satellite and mall sites under Comelec's Register Anywhere Program. 

Besides first-time applicants, the commission will process transfers, reactivations of deactivated records and corrections of entries.