MANILA, Philippines – Commission on Elections (Comelec) Spokesman James Jimenez urged Filipinos on Tuesday, September 18, to register as voters if they haven’t, “to help bring about actual change.”

“Press pause on that Twitter argument you’re having. That’s not very likely to change anything,” Jimenez said in a tweet on Tuesday.

“#VoterReg2018 ends in 11 days. Being a registered voter means you’re in a position to help bring about actual change,” he added, using the hashtag for voter registration this year.

Voter registration ends on September 29.

The Comelec is opening its local offices Mondays to Saturdays, including holidays, for the voter registration. 

The poll body is accommodating new registrants, those who want to transfer or reactivate their voter records, those who want to correct their entries, and those who want to include or reinstate their records in the voters’ list.

Jimenez said that as of August 29, the Comelec has processed 2.055 million voter applications.

He said almost half this number, or 959,561, were applications for registration, and more than 185,000 were applications for reactivation.

He added that based on census data, the Comelec this year expects more than 850,000 people “to turn 18 and thus become eligible to register and vote.”

Jimenez added that for 2019, the Comelec “expects the number of registered voters to stand at approximately 60 to 61 million.” If elections were held today, the Philippines would have around 58 million registered voters, he said. – Rappler.com