The House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms has approved the proposal Overseas Voting Act of 2023 seeking to allow overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) vote online.
“Our OFWs and overseas Filipinos, including seafarers, constitute a significant segment of our society, with their economic contribution and the national honor that they bring to the country, and for the sacrifices they endure while working abroad, leaving their loved ones behind,” OFW party-list Rep. Marissa Magsino said.
“Therefore, we owe them the best, possible, convenient, and securements to exercise their right of suffrage as valued compatriots as fellow Filipinos,” she added.
Magsino said that only 1.69 million of around 12 million OFW voters registered for the 2022 elections.
Out of the registered voters only around 600,000 cast their votes.
Comelec Chairman George Gad said that the 700,000 OFWs who failed to vote in the last two elections will be deactivated.
“We spend that much, only to have that 38 to 39 percent voter turnout. Maybe we could avail other modes of voting, which is internet voting,” Garcia said.
