More registration sites to be set up in next voters’ registration period

An elderly woman is assisted as she undergoes biometric procedure at a voters’ registration facility in Binondo, Manila on January 26, 2023 just days before the deadline of poll registration on January 31. —INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

MANILA, Philippines — As the seven-day Special Register Anywhere Program (SRAP) for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) ends on Thursday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be expanding this initiative nationwide in its next voters’ registration period.

According to Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia on Thursday, the Comelec wants to bring the registration program to many far-flung areas across the country.

“We will launch the SRAP nationwide. We will bring it even [to] Marawi City and Iligan City. We will also hold it in cities, highly urbanized and component cities, because it is necessary,” Garcia said on the sidelines of the SRAP at the main office of the Department of Budget and Management.

He earlier said that the Comelec will resume its registration drive from the 3rd week of October to July 2026 if the BSKE is postponed. He previously announced that the bill seeking to postpone the elections will lapse into law on August 14.

However, if the BSKE pushes through on December 1, 2025, the poll body will conduct a new registration drive from January 2026 to July 2026.

The Comelec has set the 10-day voters’ registration from August 1 to August 10, 2025. Meanwhile, the SRAP will run from August 1 to August 7 only.

READ: Palace to let bill postponing BSKE lapse into law — Comelec

The poll body received around 8,000 voter registrations from the SRAP sites in several areas in Metro Manila.

When asked how the poll body chooses where they will conduct the SRAP, Garcia said that it depends on the volume of people in a certain area.

“As long as there is a crowd, and the influx of people is expected, wherever there are long queues, there should be SRAP – in hospitals and in the [terminals] of buses,” he noted.

“It is good that we receive requests. We grant requests of educational institutions, government agencies, and other LGUs and even NGOs. There is a need to persuade them to register,” he added.

Among the SRAP sites for the BSKE are Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center and Ospital ng Maynila in Manila, academic institutions like New Era University in Quezon City and San Beda Alabang in Muntinlupa City, and terminals and airports like the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City and the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange.

The poll body also brought the SRAP to business outsource processing hubs to cater to employees who work the graveyard shift.

READ: LIST: Comelec’s Special Register Anywhere Program schedule

The Comelec is accepting the following applications for the voters’ registration period:

• Registration
• Change of name and status
• Correction of entries
• Reactivation of registration records
• Inclusion of registration records and reinstatement of name in the list of voters
• Updating of records of Persons With Disabilities (PWD), senior citizens, and members of the indigenous peoples (IPs) and indigenous cultural communities (ICCs)
• Transfer from overseas to local only

Meanwhile, the transfer of local registration records is not allowed during this registration period.

Anyone can bring at least one of the following government-issued IDs:

• National ID
• Postal ID
• PWD ID
• Student’s ID card or library card (with the signature of a school authority)
• Senior Citizen ID
• Driver’s license or student permit
• National Bureau of Investigation clearance
• Philippine passport
• Social Security System/Government Service Insurance System or Unified Multi-Purpose ID
• Integrated Bar of the Philippines ID
• Professional Regulatory Commission License
• Certificate of Confirmation from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples for members of ICCs and IPs
• Other government-issued valid IDs

Meanwhile, barangay certification or identification, community tax certificates, Philippine National Police Clearance and Company ID will not be accepted. /apl