TOL Views

Overseas Filipino Workers now have brighter hopes of participating in the 2025 midterm elections as Comelec approved last May the conduct of internet voting.  OFW voter turnout last May 2022 elections was only at 38 percent, which when translated to numbers is only around 626,000 out of the 1.6 million registered OFWs.  As voting is both a right and an obligation, the choice of our OFWs should thus form part of the Filipinos' collective decision come May 2025. We understand the challenges of our OFWs in exercising their rights to suffrage while working in a foreign land.  The consulates are sometimes really distant from the migrant workers’ place of work or residence.  Not so many OFWs get lucky to be allowed by their employers to leave work in order to cast their votes.  For our seafarers who stay at sea for prolonged periods of time, it has always been difficult to find the opportunity to come to polling places to vote.  Online voting will surely address most, if not all, of these concerns.  Increased participation of OFWs in the May 2025 polls will mean their amplified voice, their more active involvement in the selection of leaders upon whom the Filipino nation will rely for positive direction and national growth. The Commission on Elections affirmed that new legislation is no longer required to implement internet voting as this is well within the purview and power of the Comelec to explore varying methods of automated polls to ensure that all votes are tallied and results are truly reflective of the people’s choice. While electronic voting requires highly sophisticated cyber defense technology and such other means to safeguard our OFWs’ votes, the establishment of this system is necessary to guarantee that our modern-day heroes – our bagong bayani – are able to choose leaders who will not only ensure their safety and welfare abroad, but will likewise work for reforms so that they will no longer have to leave home to build a brighter future for their families.