GOVERNMENT personnel, military, police, and media men get the first opportunity to vote in the May 2022 elections as the three-day local absentee voting (LAV) begins today.
In an interview, Elections Commissioner George Garcia urged all local absentee voters to exercise their rights to vote early and ahead of the general public between April 27 to 29.
“All of you are already heroes. Be patriots. Cast your votes. Be true Filipinos by voting rightly,” said Garcia.
“Don’t disregard this opportunity to cast your votes. Each Filipino should be able to cast their vote, regardless of their jobs and duties on Election Day,” he added.
A total of 84,357 registered voters have been approved for LAV, based on Comelec data, including Elections chairman Saidamen Pangarungan and Commissioner Aimee Neri.
Majority of those approved for local absentee voting are members of the Philippine National Police with 47,021; followed by the Philippine Army with 34,570; Philippine Air Force with 4,217; Department of Education with 3,005; Bureau of Jail Management and Penology with 1,047; and Commission on Elections with 1,017.
Other qualified sectors include members of the media (957), Philippine Navy (857), Philippine Coast Guard (563), Philippine Military Academy (228), Bureau of Fire Protection (147), Philippine Information Agency (27), Department of Interior and Local Government (24), National Power Corporation (9), Department of Foreign Affairs (4), Culion Hospital (3), and Public Attorney’s Office (2).
Using the manual system of voting, local absentee voters are set to elect their candidates for president, vice-president, senators, and party-lists.
For the police, military, and other government offices, the Comelec said it is their respective head of office who will conduct the voting, distribute their ballots, collect the envelopes containing the accomplished ballots, then transmit it back to the Comelec.
For media men, they will be voting at the local Comelec offices where they filed their applications to avail of the local absentee voting.
As for the counting and canvassing of votes, Garcia said it will be done on May 9 at 7 p.m. at the third and fourth floors of the Palacio del Gobernador building in Intramuros, Manila.
“All candidates will be notified so they can send their watchers to observe,” said Garcia.
