Garcia: Comelec’s precinct finder up 2 weeks before May 2025 polls

Commission on Elections Chairman George Garcia

MANILA, Philippines — The precinct finder of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be available two weeks before the May 2025 elections, Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Wednesday.

According to Garcia, this is to avoid potential hacking of the precinct finder where the personal data of voters are stored.

READ: DICT deploys teams to combat election-related misinformation

“We have a precinct finder and we will release this two weeks before the elections,” Garcia said in Filipino during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum in Malate, Manila.

“It will be quite dangerous if we release it for a longer time because in the 2022 elections, there were 35 million attempts to hack the precinct finder but were unsuccessful,” he added.

When asked about the possibility of the precinct finder being hacked for merely seconds since it will be available two weeks before the elections, Garcia said Comelec personnel are being trained to safeguard the precinct finder.

He also bared that the Comelec website receives 400,000 hacking attempts monthly, but the website does not contain voter information.

“Remember that the Comelec has the widest scope of data of Filipinos among all government agencies,” he said in Filipino.

Garcia also said voters are allowed to bring phones with a list of candidates they would vote for inside the polling precincts. However, taking pictures of the ballots would be considered an election offense.

He reiterated that the Comelec is targeting to distribute a voter information sheet (VIS) to every Filipino registered voter by April.

READ: Every voter to get voter information sheet for 2025 polls – Comelec

Garcia said the VIS is a four-page guide containing the voter’s name, the number and location of their polling precincts, instructions on how to vote, and other reminders. The sheet also contains the names of candidates.

He previously said that the VIS can serve as the voters’ “cheat sheet” for the elections.

He reiterated that the distribution of VIS is not a first for the Comelec. However, many voters may not have received it from the previous elections due to mishaps in the barangay-level distribution.

Garcia also said the poll body would deploy non-partisan emergency workers to disseminate the information sheets.