By Daisy CL Mandap
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| The Consulate advisory says it will open tomorrow, 9am to 3pm, for OVR only |
Despite
tomorrow being a statutory holiday due to the Chung Yeung festival, the
Consulate will open from 9am to 3pm for overseas voter registration.
An advisory posted on the Consulate’s Facebook page says only OVR services will be provided during the day, the last day of the extended registration for Filipinos overseas for the May 2022 presidential elections.
In the
Philippines, voter registration will continue until Oct 30.
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The
original deadline was Sept 30 for both local and overseas registration, but the
Commission on Elections was forced to yield to a widespread clamor for an
extension, which received strong support from both houses of Congress.
As no
registration took place today due to the hoisting of Storm Signal No 8 across
Hong Kong, the long queues in the past several Sundays are likely to happen
again tomorrow.
Most of
those who patiently lined up on those days said it took them no less than seven
hours to get through the process. Those who wanted to be first in line
reportedly got to the United Centre building in Admiralty where the Consulate
has its offices, as early as 5 in the morning.
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But with
the cut-off time set an hour earlier tomorrow, Consulate staff will not likely
stay up beyond 1am the next day, as what happened in the last three Sundays of
registration.
The line
was longest on Oct 10, the last Sunday before the extended deadline.
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| The line was the longest on Sunday, Oct 10 |
When asked why they decided to register at the last minute when the OVR has been going on for at least a year, many said they were not aware that it was going on. They claimed they never saw any announcement on the Consulate’s social media sites about the registration exercise.
One of
them was Precy Pacuyo, who said in a comment on Facebook: “Hindi ako aware about (the) registration. Nalaman ko lang sa isang
friend ko na last day na noon Sept 26 yata, tapos na extend ng Oct. 14. Di rin
ako nakakalabas ng maaga para makapila.”(I wasn’t aware about the
registration. I just learned from a friend that the last day was on Sept 26 – I
think – then it was extended to Oct 14. I also couldn’t leave the house early
to line up).
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Others cited
the coronavirus pandemic as the main reason for their failure to register, as
employers used it to prevent their domestic workers from taking a day-off.
Before this, the raucous anti-government protests in Hong Kong also kept many
people at home.
A few said
they decided to register only after seeing their favored candidates file their
declaration to run for key posts in next year’s election.
But those
who were more forthright admitted they did not give the voter registration a
priority until they realized there were only a few more days left before the OVR
closed.
As in
previous overseas voting exercises, voters will have the chance to elect the Philippines’
next president, vice-president and senators, as well as a party-list of their
choice. Designated nominees of party-lists that win enough votes will get to sit
at the House of Representatives.
All Philippine passport holders aged 18 years old and above are qualified to register. Overseas, they need to present only a copy of their passport page with their personal details to be able to register.
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