On absentee voting
PROTECT OFW VOTES -- VILLAR

Senate President Manny Villar is pleased that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are accorded the opportunity to exercise their right of suffrage through absentee voting.

Absentee voting is a good mechanism which enables our overseas workers to participate in the electoral process in the country, the reelectionist senator, president of the Nacionalista party who is running as an independent candidate, said.

However, we cannot deny that we in the opposition are anxious about the entire process, particularly because the ballot boxes stay for a month abroad where our OFWs cast their votes, Villar said.

We must ensure that our OFWs votes are protected and counted, he stressed.

Although we have faith in the capability of the Department of Foreign Affairs and their officers serving abroad, we do not discount the possibility that should one or two decide to commit fraud, election results would be compromised, Villar said.

But given such possibility, we choose to remain optimistic that our OFWs exercise of their right of suffrage through absentee voting will be given due protection in the same way that their hard work is recognized by our government as a pillar of our economy, the Senate President stressed.

Villar spent his weekend in Hong Kong, where he placed second in the mock elections conducted and participated in by OFWs, many of whom received counseling from the reelectionist senator on various concerns.

Overseas absentee voting period is for one month, from April 14 to May 14, and involving 504,110 Filipinos in 150 countries. It includes 18,404 seafarers on ocean-going vessels who registered under the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003 or Republic Act 9189.

The OFWs and seafarers are casting their votes for senators and party-list organizations at polling centers set up at Philippine embassies and consulates abroad.