THE Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms scheduled the bill for its first meeting during the second regular session of Congress as it acknowledges the importance of the bill in underpinning the efforts being taken by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on internet voting for the 2025 elections.
House Bill 6770 aims to expand voting methods to include electronic means for OFWs and Filipino seafarers, ensuring their participation in the electoral process. It seeks to enhance absentee voting procedures, enabling them to register, receive ballots, and cast votes electronically as determined by the Comelec, while maintaining vote integrity.
The OFW Party List, the Comelec, the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, and allied agencies such as the Department of Migrant Workers and the Department of Foreign Affairs, have been discussing the parallel efforts on internet voting since early this year. All are in alignment that internet voting will encourage the active participation of our OFWs in the electoral process and in shaping the nation’s future. They have met several times to refine the proposed legal scaffolding, House Bill 6770, and to ensure a transparent, secure, and efficient electoral process via internet voting for overseas voters.
The Committee tackled the proposed amendments to the bill, particularly the protection of the data privacy act and the possible technical malfunctions in the migration to online voting. The Committee will schedule another meeting on August 9, 2023.
House Bill 6770 was approved by the Committee in principle subject to the amendments and the final approval of the substitute bill and committee report.
The OFW Party List thanks the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, chaired by Rep. Maximo Dalog, for the headway on House Bill 6770 and on the efforts of all stakeholders on internet voting.
