Voters' registration for the upcoming 2025 midterm elections may be halted temporarily to give way to the verification of signatures submitted for the people's initiative to amend the Charter, a poll official said Friday.

"Kung sakali talagang magpo-prosper ang petition at kailangan naming magtuloy sa verification, e malamang ay ihinto namin pansamantala ang voters' registration kung ano mang petsa abutin 'yan. Kasi nga po, hindi pwedeng nagre-register kami - iisa lang ang election officer namin kada munisipyo, kada lungsod, at hindi niya pupwedeng pagsabayin na nagrerehistro siya at the same time ay nagve-verify," Commission on Elections spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said in a TeleRadyo Serbisyo interview.

Election officers have received signature pages from over 600 municipalities and cities but no formal petition for a people's initiative seeking to amend the 1987 Constitution.

• Comelec receives more signature forms for People’s Initiative

Upon receipt of the signature pages, election officers are required to count the signatures and then issue a certification on the number of signatures.

He said the proponent can use the certification as an attachment to the formal petition for people's initiative to be submitted to the Comelec.

Once the petition is filed, it is only then that Comelec will check if the signatures have reached the twin requirements for a people's initiative:
signatures must be at least 12 percent of the total number of 68 million registered voters and each legislative district must also be represented by at least 3 percent of registered voters.

If the sufficiency requirement is met, the Comelec can then proceed to the verification of the signatures.

Laudiangco said Comelec will first check if the signature comes from a real person, from a registered voter that is not deactivated, and if the signature matches the one in Comelec records.

After the weeding process, the Comelec can then check the final number of signatures verified.

Laudiangco said the signatures could be cross-checked with the signatures gathered for the Comelec voter registration, which will restart on February 12.

He said Comelec is expecting an additional 3 million voters to register ahead of the polls, bringing the total number of registered voters to 71 million.

Signatures from the petition can also be removed if the voter complains he or she was not informed about how his or her signature will be used.