29 March 2016 - The Philippine Consulate General in Osaka hosted the on-site training on the implementation of the Automated Election System (AES) for overseas voting for the purpose of the 2016 National Elections from March 21 to 23 at Hotel Agora Regency Sakai.

Philippine Consul General to Osaka Maria Teresa L. Taguiang welcomed the trainers from Manila headed by COMELEC Commissioner Al A. Parreno, Department of Foreign Affairs – Overseas Voting Secretariat (DFA-OVS), and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the training participants from four Philippine Foreign Service Posts – the Philippine Embassies in Seoul and Tokyo and the Philippine Consulates General in Agana and Osaka.

The participants are all members of their respective Special Board of Canvassers (SBOC), Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI), and Special Ballot Reception and Custody Group (SBRCG), who went through 10 modules of learning materials involving the general provisions, modes of voting, field voting, final testing and sealing, post counting procedures, the technical procedures and hands-on operation of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) vote-counting machine, among others. The DOST representative administered the examination to the members of the SBEI and the VCM Technical Assistants to ensure that those implementing the AES at Posts are certified, ready and capable.

Overseas Voting commences on April 09, 2016 and ends on May 09, 2016. END