Comelec suspends voter registration for 2026 BSKE in Eastern Visayas

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has suspended the registration of voters for the 2026 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) in Eastern Visayas amid the onslaught of Typhoon Tino in the region.

“Una naming sinuspend sa Tacloban City dahil nag-suspend ang city government ng kanilang pasok. Ginawa naming buong Region 8 ang sinuspend na lang natin ang registration at mga pasok,“ Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia told reporters on Tuesday.

(We suspended the registration in Tacloban City first due to the suspension of work in government offices. Later, we opted to suspend the registration and work in Comelec offices in the entire Region 8.)

Garcia said local poll offices are now conducting an inventory and are inspecting if there were any Comelec equipment damaged as a result of the heavy rains.

The registration of voters will resume once the typhoon-hit areas are declared safe, he added.

It may be recalled that the Comelec resumed voters’ registration for the 2026 BSKE on October 20, 2025. It will run until May 18, 2026.

As of October 30, a total of 240,687 applicants have registered to vote in the November 2026 BSKE. Of this figure, 127, 980 are females and 112,707 are males.

The highest number of registrants were recorded in Region IV-A with 48,364, followed by the National Capital Region with 32,789 and Region III with 24,661 registrants.

Meanwhile, the Comelec head office received 1,600 applications.

“Ang naparegister natin ay 240,000 sa 10 days ng registration. Napakalaki kung tutuusin,” said Garcia.

(We received more than 240,000 registrations in just ten days. That’s a big number, if you think about it.)

“Ang estimate na 1.4 million na bagong botante ay mukang mare-reach o masosobrahan pa,” he said.

(We may reach or exceed our target of 1.4 million new voters.) — JMA, GMA Integrated News