Comelec eyes 2M new voters from overseas in 2-year listup period

The Commission on Elections — Inquirer file photo

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) aims to register at least two million new voters from overseas for the 2028 national and local elections.

Comelec Chair George Garcia said he hopes to bring the total of overseas voters to three million by the end of the two-year listup period that would run from Dec. 1 to Sept. 30, 2027.

During this period, all Filipino citizens overseas who are at least 18 years old on or before May 8, 2028, the date of the 2028 elections, may register, provided they are not disqualified by law.

READ: Gabriela to get 64th party-list seat in House, says Comelec

Applicants can file for new registration, transfer of registration records, reactivation, correction of entries, change of address, reinstatement or certification.

Required documents include a valid Philippine passport, a certification from a Philippine post, a certified true copy of the order approving the retention or reacquisition of Filipino citizenship, or a photocopy of a Seafarer’s Identification Record Book for seafarers.

Foreign, local applications

Applications can be submitted at Philippine embassies, consulates, designated registration centers abroad, the Comelec Office for Overseas Voting in Manila or designated local field registration centers in the Philippines.

The last overseas registration was held from Dec. 9, 2022, to Sept. 30, 2024, where some 200,000 registered.

There were a total of 1.241 million registered overseas Filipino voters during the May 12 midterm elections.

But Garcia expected the registration figures to go, as in previous experience, because it would involve a presidential election.“2028 is a very crucial year. 2028 is crucial in our political history because we are electing the president and vice president and other positions. This is very important,” Garcia said during the signing of the memorandum of agreement for the establishment of field overseas voter registration centers last week.

Estimated diaspora size

Government data estimates the Filipino diaspora at about 15 million Filipinos, with about 4.6 million with Filipino ethnicity in the United States.

There are also almost a million Filipinos in Canada.

In the Middle East, there were about 919,819 in the United Arab Emirates in 2013 and 725,893 in Saudi Arabia in 2022.

In Australia, there were at least 408,836 in 2021, while there were 332,293 in Japan in 2024.