At 10:00 a.m. here in Malaybalay City, COMELEC released all printed forms. The prospective registrants were told to come back tomorrow. So sad. 😢

I realized that Chairperson Garcia was not in uniform. This reminded me about Senator Chiz Escudero wearing casual attire in one of the First Monday Convocation Programs/Flag Raising Ceremony of the Senate. While office uniform regulation is strictly enforced on the rank and file government employees, there exists a double standard (as always)! 😡

Hi! I am writing to express my deep concern and frustration regarding the voter registration process during its final day on August 10, 2025, at SM Caloocan. While I understand the need for order and crowd control, the manner in which the cut-off was implemented was both discouraging and unnecessarily restrictive to the very people COMELEC is tasked to serve.

Upon my arrival, I was informed that the cut-off had already been reached as early as 5:00 AM, with some individuals reportedly lining up as early as midnight or 3:00 AM just to secure a slot. This information was never officially or widely announced, leaving many citizens — myself included — to spend time, effort, and resources only to be turned away without being accommodated.

I later learned that the daily limit was set to around 700 applicants — a figure that had to cover all types of transactions, including:

• First-time voter registration
• Reactivation
• Correction of entries/change of name
• Inclusion/reinstatement
• Transfer from overseas to local
• Updating of records for PWDs, senior citizens, IPs, and other vulnerable sectors

While 700 might seem reasonable on paper, it is severely insufficient in practice. One barangay alone can easily exceed that number, and combining multiple types of applications into one small quota creates unnecessary competition among citizens for a basic right.

The Constitution guarantees our right to vote, but the current system for exercising that right feels more like a privilege for those who can afford to lose sleep, sacrifice work or school hours, and endure unreasonable waiting conditions. It is disheartening that instead of making voter registration more accessible, the process inadvertently excludes those who do not have the luxury of lining up in the middle of the night.

I'd like to know how the COMELEC there decided on this. Considering that it is conducted in a mall, they can enforce overtime to accommodate everyone, especially on this last day of registration. In our COMELEC here, the people have to line up even outside if their small office can no longer accommodate the excess. My daughter, who is a first-time registrant, got a queuing number 500 at 1:00 p.m. last Friday, but the COMELEC decided to work overtime until she got served at 8:30 p.m. I will post a picture of the people lining up outside the COMELEC here. So you see, how inconvenient it is to line up here, unlike inside a mall. Although they belong to the same government agency, it is more likely that the local head of office is given the freedom to decide on their own how they manage the specific situation they are facing.