Internet voting for the 2025 elections is proceeding for over 50,000 overseas Filipinos despite a pending petition before the Supreme Court seeking to halt the virtual ballot system.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia confirmed that the Supreme Court has not issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) in response to the petition filed by PDP-Laban members, who claim the online voting process lacks legal basis.
“Since there is no TRO, we have to proceed to implement our En Banc resolution promulgated two years ago,” Garcia said in an INQUIRER.net report, referring to Comelec Resolution No. 11061.
The Comelec chief maintained that Republic Act No. 10590, also known as the Overseas Absentee Voting Act, empowers the commission to explore alternative modes of voting through automated election systems.
As of Monday, Garcia said all 77 overseas voting and counting system (OVCS) posts worldwide were operational. The last to open was in Honolulu, which started at 2 a.m. Philippine time (8 a.m. Hawaii time). He also noted that all 16 automated counting machine posts have begun accepting votes.
“With that, all 93 Posts have opened voting for their respective jurisdictions for the 2025 National Elections overseas,” Garcia said.
The Comelec reported that 54,575 overseas voters had registered in the OVCS as of 5:00 a.m. Monday. The voting period runs from April 13 to May 12.
Meanwhile, the Comelec also revealed that over 14,500 local absentee voting (LAV) applications were denied. Of the 72,236 applications received, 57,689 were approved, mostly coming from the military (29,030), police force (23,448), government employees (4,206), and members of the media (1,005).
Local absentee voting will take place from April 28 to 30 between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Both local and overseas absentee voters are limited to voting for senatorial candidates and party-list groups.
