Comelec to no longer accept barangay certificates for voter registration

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will no longer accept barangay certificates as proof of residency for voter registration, poll body chief George Erwin Garcia said Thursday.

“Nire-revise na po namin ang guidelines natin sa registration. Tinatanggal na po namin ang barangay certification bilang ebidensya na puwedeng gamitin bilang pagpapatunay daw na taga-dun ang mga tao,” Garcia told the monthly forum of the Manila City Hall Reporters’ Association in Ermita, Manila.

(We are revising our guidelines for registration. We will no longer allow barangay certification as proof of residency for voter registration.)

“Sa dami naming barangay officials na aming inimbestigahan dahil sa aming palagay, 'yan ay na-weaponize…Ginagamit ng ilang tiwali na opisyal para maglipat ng kanilang botante o kaya alisin ang mga botante sa kanilang palagay ay kalaban nila,” he said.

(We are investigating a lot of barangay officials, and we think this is being weaponized. Some officials were using this to move voters or remove voters who they think will not vote for them.)

According to Garcia, the Comelec monitored incidents in the recent midterm polls in which barangay officials mistakenly issued barangay certificates. These included Makati and Cagayan de Oro, where the poll body found a surge in voter registration ahead of the May 12 elections.

Garcia appealed to eligible voters to acquire government-issued identification (ID) cards, including senior citizen IDs, postal IDs, and student IDs.

“Dati wala naman talagang nakalagay na barangay certificates although hindi nawe-weaponize…Nagkaroon lang talaga ng pagbabago nung magkaroon ng decision ang SC [Supreme Court] sa kaso ng Sabili vs Comelec…Will the Comelec now defy the SC? No, we will just interpret the fact that the decision pertains to a candidate [who was able to show compliance with the one-year residency requirement for local elective officials by presenting a certification from the barangay captain]. Our decision pertains to being a voter,” Garcia said.

(Barangay certificates were not used before, although they were not weaponized. It was changed after the SC decision in Sabili vs. Comelec. Will the Comelec now defy the SC? No, we will just interpret the fact that decision pertains to a candidate [who was able to show compliance with the one-year residency requirement for local elective officials by presenting a certification from the barangay captain]. Our decision pertains to being a voter.)

The poll body first sought the ban on barangay certificates for voter registration last November.

The Comelec is set to open the voter registration for the 2025 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BKSE) from July 1 to July 11, 2025.

Garcia said the poll body is expecting 1 million Filipinos to register as he reiterated their plans to expand their Register Anywhere Program and offsite mall voting program.

For those who will fail to register or reactivate their voter registration, the poll chief allayed fears of disenfranchisement, saying they will reopen the voter registration for the whole year of 2026 for the 2028 elections.

The 2025 BSKE will take place on December 1.

For the May elections, 69,673,655 people had registered to vote, with 68,431,965 of them residing in the Philippines and 1,241,690 abroad. The Comelec expects three million new voters for the 2028 polls, increasing the total registered Filipino voters to around 71 million. — VBL, GMA Integrated News