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Voter Registration in the Philippines (2022 Election)


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The time has come in the Philippines where the youth has gotten the chance to finally showcase their actions onto the upcoming elections. Although it may not seem such a big deal to those who have already voted, the next generation of first-time voters will have such a huge impact on the future as the Philippines have gone through countless issues such as the corruption of the government and how they were dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, many aspects need to be considered, especially the significance of the 2022 election within the country as this would affect the next few years of our generation as a youth.


About the Election

The Philippines declared independence from Spain on June 12, 1898, after countless years of colonization. However, other countries such as the United States and Japan have occupied and declared military rule in the Philippines to gain power from neighbouring countries. But the Philippines itself has been independent since other rulers of different nations.

In relation to the Philippines’ independence, the nation itself would need a leading party in civilization to stay in the form of a coalition government. Hence, the election has been generated to make a mission for this case be in touch. However, there are different types of elections in the country. The president, vice president, and senators would be elected for a six-year term whereas other government leaders are elected to serve for a three-year term. In this case, the election would be primarily focused on the presidential term which would be elected for the next six years.

The Philippines has a multi-party system where several political parties must work together in order to have a consistent government body. The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) is responsible for holding onto these elections and ensuring that there won’t be bias coming from the committee themselves. The first election that was held was in 1898 for the Malolos Congress whereas the whole elected body was held in 1907. This timeline was known to be the first general election in the Philippines.


Information and Issues

The 2022 Philippine presidential and vice-presidential election will be held on May 9, 2022, where this will be the 17th direct presidential election in the Philippines since 1935. According to Republic Act No.7166, the election for all positions in different systematic forms would be held on the second Monday of May where, as mentioned, that national, provincial, and municipal positions would end after three years whereas presidential and vice-presidential elections end within six years after.

During this time, this will be an election after President Duterte Rodrigo’s six-year term since he won’t be eligible for the next term. However, his political party has passed a recent resolution for claiming vice presidency as well as his daughter, Sara, to shoot for the top post. There is no announcement yet regarding this proposal at the current moment. As for the recent Vice President Leny Robredo, she has not said anything about her electoral plans but stated that the opposition to this issue must be “behind a single figure”.

The members of the Commission on Elections will be appointed by President Duterte in which membership will be ongoing throughout the year. Chairman Sheriff Abas and the commissioners, Antonio Kho and Rowena Guanzom will serve till February 2 of 2022 before the election will start. Some of the commissioners have been appointed by the recent president such as Guanzon and a lawyer, Michael Peloton, who will be filling the seat by the retired Luie Tito Guia. It is important to understand this membership to know more about how this election will flow.

In regards to the voter registration, it began on January 20, 2020, and it will end till September 30, 2021, which the commission expects at least 4.3 million eligible Filipino citizens to register. There have been suggestions from the representative of Camarines Sur to use a hybrid electoral system in 2022 where there would be a manual counting for the votes. However, this would be in contrast to automatically counting the voting system. But the president has suggested Smartmatic as a partner for this voting system since it had caused tensions from the previous elections. Another proposal was made by Guanzon to vote via mail due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but there were no statements yet regarding this proposal. As of now, voting will still be presented for more machines since COMELEC plans to reduce the “possibility of infection” from the coronavirus.



Impact on the Youth

Young Filipino voters have their time to shine to remind others to vote for leaders who will pave their way for the future. According to Jandeil Roperos, National President of the National Union of the Students of the Philippines (NUSP), most of the proportion of the voting population will consist of the youth which will will play a significant role to vote for the future leaders. She mentioned that most of the youth today are aware of what is happening within society which would make them reflect on whom the leaders will respond directly towards the ‘health and economic crisis faced in the Philippines. She also stated that the youth could shape public opinions through the use of social media platforms as it has the potential to impact the election results.

The Department of Education (DepEd) has also believed that young voters who would cast their vote in the upcoming election as a “potential power” to impact the country’s stance in the near future. Adolf Aguilar, the Chief of DepEd, has stated that the role of the youth would “greatly influence” the results of the elections as it would affect the future of the Filipino generation. For instance, during the 2019 elections, the COMELEC Spokesperson had underscored the youth’s vote that reached over 22 million voters which scored 35% overall. Youth empowerment groups have advocated about the youth registering for this election and campaigning for having young Filipinos across the country voice out their opinions of the issues that are happening in the Philippines. Social media has also played a huge role in this election since many youth organizations have shared their opinion about this matter. As of now, it has been recorded from April 2021 that about 2.6 million first-time voters have registered for the 2022 elections.


How Can You Vote


Local Registration

For local Filipino residents who are residing in the Philippines, here are the steps and eligibility for registering to vote:

  • You must be a Filipino citizen who is at least 18 years old on or before the election day.

  • You must be a resident of the Philippines for at least 1 year and a place where you’re planning to vote within 6 months of that time period.

  • For identification, you would need to have a photocopy of any valid ID you have which would need to contain the current address you’re living in.

  • You will need a CEF-1 for application or an Annex B a form for PWDs (Persons With Disabilities) and Indigenous people.

  • You will also need to bring the Coronavirus Health Declaration form to share your clearance from the current COVID-19 pandemic.


For further information on the pre-registration and mobile registration process, watch Alyanna Ross’s video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA9dT84CMaA&t=124s ) for more understanding.

Overseas Registration

For Filipino citizens who are residing abroad, it differs in every other country since appointments towards registering would be different depending on the day that a COMELEC officer could entertain you. Thus, you will need to make an appointment towards the Overseas Voting C email, landline, or mobile enlisted within the location you are from. You will need to fill out an Overseas Voting Form 1 (OVF 1) that would be given from the OVOF staff. For more information of overseas registration, check out this website: https://thepinoyofw.com/comelec-registration-overseas-voters/


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