Comelec: ‘All systems go’ for absentee voting
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections said it is prepared to facilitate the local and overseas absentee voting for the upcoming national polls.
"'All systems go' na po kami patungkol sa absentee voting (when it comes to absentee voting)," Comelec Commissioner George Garcia said in a public briefing on Monday.
Garcia said the commission is also prepared to facilitate the voting system for persons deprived of liberties.
In a briefing last week, Garcia reported that the commission has received a total of 93,819 local absentee voting applicants. Comelec has verified 93,567 of these applicants are registered voters, while only 84,221 were so far approved to cast their votes as local absentee voters.
The commission said it rejected 9,346 LAV applications, since some of the applicants were not registered to vote, some had deactivated registrations, while the others were not able to apply on time.
"Nakakapanghinayang po na madaming natanggal sa nag-apply o hindi na approve dahil hindi pala rehistradong botante o kaya naman po, ang iba nating mga kapatid sa media ay hindi nakaboto nang dalawang magkasunod na eleksyon so wala na po silang registration. In the meantime, they are deactivated," Garcia said on Monday.
(It is unfortunate that many of those who applied were removed or were not approved because they were not registered voters, or for some of our media practitioners, they did not vote in two consecutive elections, so they are no longer registered. In the meantime, they are deactivated.)
Comelec said there are more than 7.229 million deactivated voters.
Meanwhile, Garcia said they found a way to allow overseas Filipino voters who will vote through postal mail. The commission previously asked for more money to buy postage stamps for mail-in votes.
Filipinos overseas have the option to vote in-person via the Philippine embassy or consulate in their area or by mailing in their ballots. Ballots are counted either manually or through an automated election system.
"Sana nga po sa mga susunod na panahon at nananawagan tayo sa kongreso na mapagisipan na rin po natin ang online voting. Napaka ganda po yan basta matama yung security, maprotektahan ang boto ng ating mga kababayan," Garcia said.
(Hopefully, in the future and we call on Congress to consider it, maybe we can make online voting available as well. It's a good option as long as we ensure that we can secure [and] protect the vote of our countrymen.)
The total number of overseas voters for the 2022 national and local elections stands at 1.697 million, according to Comelec data. Garcia encouraged overseas Filipino voters to exercise their right to vote.
"Wag niyo po sanang balewalain ito, ito po sana yung pagkakataon niyo na makapaghalal kayo ng lider para sa kinabukasan natin," Garcia said.
(Please don't ignore this, this is your chance to elect a leader for our future.)
Local absentee voters may cast their votes from April 27 to 29, while overseas absentee voters will have the opportunity to mark their ballots beginning April 10 to May 9. — Kaycee Valmonte
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