DFA Overseas Voting Secretariat, COMELEC to Launch Field Registration Centers for Overseas Voters 

08 March 2023 – The Department of Foreign Affairs Overseas Voting Secretariat (OVS) and the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), represented respectively by OVS Chairperson, Undersecretary Jesus S. Domingo, and COMELEC Chairperson George Erwin M. Garcia, signed on 02 March 2023 a Memorandum of Agreement on the establishment of local field registration centers for overseas voters in the DFA.  

The registration centers will be located at the consular offices in ASEANA and NCR Central (Robinsons Galleria), and will offer the opportunity for Filipinos who are about to go abroad to register as overseas voters to be able to vote in their countries of destination during the 2025 national elections.

During the event, Undersecretary Domingo expressed hope that there will be more registrants  compared to the previous registration period, and remarked that the establishment of local registration centers is an important arrangement towards achieving this goal.  

The Undersecretary also gave the assurance that the various Embassies and Consulates will exert their best efforts to register as many overseas Filipinos as they can with the support from OVS and COMELEC.  Chairperson Garcia, on the other hand, affirmed the COMELEC’s assistance to the Department and highlighted the various ways they are thinking out of the box to increase the number of OV registrants and, eventually, the voter turnout.

Also present in the event were OVS Vice Chairperson Zoilo A. Velasco and COMELEC Commissioner-in-Charge for Overseas Voting Marlon S. Casquejo who both signed as witnesses in the MOA, COMELEC Commissioner Nelson J. Celis, and Deputy Administrator of Maritime Industry Authority Nanette Villamor-Dinopal. 

The continuing registration for overseas voting for purposes of the 2025 elections commenced on 09 December 2022 and will end on 30 September 2024. END