Comelec: Vaccine cards, face shields not required on election day

MANILA, Philippines — Voters will not be required to show proof of vaccination or bring RT-PCR results to vote on May 9, Commission on Elections Commissioner George Garcia said on Sunday.

Garcia, speaking on the Balitaan sa Maynila press forum, said this in response to concerns being raised on social media that voters might be turned away for not having those documents or for not wearing face shields, which were required in public for most of 2021.

"Walang katotohanan yan. Kayo pong lahat ay makakaboto kahit wala po kayong vaccination card. Kahit hindi po kayo nagpabakuna para sa COVID-19," he said.

(There is no truth to that. All of you will be allowed to vote even if you do not have a vaccination card. Even if you are not vaccinated against COVID-19)

He said that as long as voters are on the voters' list, they will be allowed through. 

Negative COVID-19 tests are also not required, he said, clarifying, however, that people with the coronavirus or are suspected to have been infected are supposed to be on quarantine.

Garcia said in April that the Comelec will put up isolation polling areas for voters found to have COVID-like symptoms like a high temperature. The poll body is still ironing out the guidelines for the isolation polling areas, he said then.

"Ang kailangan lang po ay face mask, hindi po kailangan ang face shield (You have to be wearing a face mask, but face shields are no longer required)," he said Sunday.

Garcia said that there are no guidelines on what color of clothes voters are allowed to wear although he stressed that shirts and clothing that have the faces of candidates on them are prohibited. "Campaigning is no longer allowed then," he said in Filipino.

Although the Comelec en banc has already recommended the declaration of election day as a special non-workig holiday to encourage more people to vote, Garcia said there is no official word for that yet. 

"That is almost [standard operating procedure], but of course it is the president who has the power to declare that day a holiday," he said.