Comelec airs an appeal to 4M delisted voters

Inquirer files

MANILA, Philippines — Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair George Garcia on Saturday called on the more than 4 million voters that the poll body has delisted to register again so that they can participate in next year’s mid-term elections.

In a radio interview, Garcia said that in the ongoing general registration of voters, which started last Feb. 12 and ends on Sept. 30, delisted voters will also be allowed to reactivate their registrations in voters’ lists.

READ: Comelec close to registering 3M new voters

“Reactivation means even if they were removed, it doesn’t mean they’re no longer voters. They are still voters, their records are there, but as a sort of penalty imposed by law, you won’t be allowed to vote for the meantime,” the Comelec chief said.

On Thursday, Garcia announced that 4,239,484 registration records have been deactivated due to various reasons.

READ: Comelec to reactivate 6.3M delisted voters

Of the figure, he said 4,237,054 voters were deactivated due to failure to vote in two successive preceding regular polls—the May 22 national and local elections, and December 2023 village and youth council elections—as shown by their voting records.

There were also 1,829 excluded by court order, 595 who failed to validate, and three who lost their Filipino citizenship.

The five regions with the most number of deactivated voters were Calabarzon, with 733,093; Central Luzon, 503,297; Western Visayas, 384,001; Central Visayas, 366,698; and Bicol, 315,971.

The list of deactivated voters are with the local Comelec offices, which will know if a voter could be allowed to cast a ballot in the next election, according to Garcia.

The application for reactivation may be filed at the local election office, which has jurisdiction over one’s voting precinct, or in selected satellite registration and “Register Anywhere Program” stations.