By SUNDY LOCUS, GMA Integrated News
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) kicked-off Monday the three-day local absentee voting (LAV) for Eleksyon 2025.
As of 9:30 a.m., personnel of the poll body started lining up at one of the polling precincts inside the Comelec office in Intramuros, Manila to cast their votes.
Absentee voters in the Philippines include members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), and media practitioners whose duty falls during election day.
Approved absentee voters may cast their votes for national candidates in various polling precincts assigned by the Comelec from April 28 to April 30,2025 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“Ito ang kauna-unahang pagkakataon sa LAV na automated. Ibig sabihin, walang machines sa bawat lugar kung saan boboto ang local absentee voters,” poll chief George Erwin Garcia told reporters.
(This is the firs time the LAV is automated. This means, there are no machines in areas where the polling precincts will be set up.)
“‘Yung balota ng mga local absentee voters ay ise-safe keep and at the same time, nasa loob ng selyadong envelope. Ito ay sabay-sabay na bubuksan sa May 12 ng gabi at sabay-sabay if-feed sa mga makina dito sa main office ng Comelec,” Garcia added.
(The ballots for LAV will be safe keep and at the same time, the envelopes are sealed. All envelopes will be opened on May 12 and will be fed to the machines.)
Garcia said the results for the LAV voting will be determined on the night of the May 12 polls. He also said the Comelec is expecting an 80% voter turnout in this year’s absentee voting — around the same turnout for the 2022 presidential elections.
“Pinursigi natin para di nagtatagal. Lagi, sa lahat ng halalaan, basta nagtagal, pinaghihinalaan. Although siyempre pag mabilis, pinaghihinalaan din. Hindi baleng pinaghihinalaan nila basta mapapaliwanag natin nangn maayos. Transparent ang proseso,” the elections chief added.
(We pursued this to expedite the process because in all elections, there will be doubts if the electoral process is too slow. There ar still doubts if it was too fast but our priority is to make it as transparent as we can.)
Last week, the Comelec said a total of 57,689 voters will be allowed to cast their ballots through the LAV.
Of the figures, a total of 1,005 were media personnel, 29,030 were members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and 23,448 were police officers.
A total of 4,206 were from various government offices including the Comelec, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in the Philippines, and the Philippine Coast Guard.
The Comelec earlier extended the registration for LAV from March 10 to March 17 due to the requests of several government offices. It likewise moved the deadline for the verification of LAV registrants from April 8 to April 11 and the transmittal of the list of qualified local absentee voters, local absentee ballots, and other election forms to April 27, 2025.
Marbil votes
Meanwhile, PNP chief Police General Rommel Marbil led around 3,000 police personnel in participating in the LAV as he cast his vote at a polling precinct in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
“We are not just enforcers of democracy — we are part of it. Voting is not only our right; it is our duty, and one way we show our love for our country,” said Marbil.
Overseas voting
Meanwhile, the Comelec said an average of 10,000 overseas voters have cast their ballots through internet voting since April 13, 2025.
The month-long overseas voting started on Sunday, April 13, 2025 with 77 out of 90 diplomatic posts participating in first-ever internet voting for the 2025 midterm elections. At least 16 posts will use automated counting machines (ACMs).
Several overseas Filipino voters earlier took to social media to express confusion about alleged changing of votes after scanning the QR codes on their ballots. However, Comelec allayed fears of electoral fraud and explained the list of names that voters saw after casting ballots via the online voting and counting system (OVCS) are part of the encrypted scripts and not the candidates they voted for.
There are 69.6 million registered voters for the May polls, according to the data from the Comelec. Of the figures, 68.4 million are in the country while 1.2 million are overseas voters. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News
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