43-M voter’s information sheets distributed nationwide
MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has distributed around 43 million voter’s information sheets (VIS) all over the country as of Saturday, April 30, to inform voters of their registration status and polling places for the 2022 elections, Commissioner George Garcia said yesterday.
Garcia, in an ANC interview, said the Comelec is targeting to distribute the VIS to 67.4 million registered Filipino voters until tomorrow.
There are about 65.7 million domestic voters and 1.8 million overseas Filipinos who registered to vote in the upcoming polls, according to the poll body.
Garcia earlier said that the VIS could be used as proof that a voter is registered in a particular precinct even if one finds error on the online Precinct Finder.
“This contains your name, your voting precinct or polling place. These will be distributed by Comelec personnel, not by the barangay officials, not by the LGUs. It contains the do’s and don’ts of voting and it contains the names of the candidates nationally and local,” he said.
“This is very, very important. We did not do that in 2019 or perhaps even in 2016,” Garcia added.
Garcia said the VIS were 100% distributed in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Region 1, and Region 3. Meanwhile, 51% have already been distributed in the National Capital Region.
The VIS will only be sent to the address declared in a voter’s registration, Garcia said.
Aside from the VIS and Precinct Finder, Garcia said there are also some voter’s assistance desks that would be made available at the entrance of each polling place during the May 9 elections. A list of voters will also be posted in front and inside the polling precinct and local Comelec offices, he added.
Garcia previously admitted that they have been receiving complaints from voters who claimed that they were active voters in previous elections but found out their status was “deactivated” on the Precinct Finder.
“The Precinct Finder is not the end of everything. It’s just a mode in which you could find out whether you’re still a registered voter or what is the state of your registration,” he said.
A total of 7,229,493 individuals who failed to vote in two successive preceding elections as shown in their voting records were deactivated for the 2022 elections, Comelec previously reported.
There were also 755,769 names on the registration records that had been canceled due to death, they added.