The Philippine Embassy in Singapore held its third virtual Ugnayan with the Filipino Community (FilCom) leaders and members on 25 July 2021.
In his opening remarks, Ambassador Joseph del Mar Yap shared with the FilCom the accomplishments of the Embassy for the first half of the year. The Ambassador reported that the Embassy was able to perform 78,236 consular-related transactions and 48,144 labor-related transactions for the 1st half of the year. As Singapore has seen a resurgence of COVID-19 infections in the past two weeks, the Ambassador again made an appeal to the FilCom to strictly follow the new COVID-19 measures under Phase 2 – Heightened Alert which are being implemented until 18 August 2021. The heads of the various sections of the Embassy and the attached agencies also took turns in reporting their accomplishments to the community.
One highlight of the 3rd Ugnayan was its segment on overseas voter registration, where Atty. Philip Luis F. Marin, COMELEC representative, discussed the procedures for overseas voting (OV). He also shared with the audience that the COMELEC is exploring other measures to ensure the success of the 2022 national elections such as the introduction of internet voting and further enhancement of the system for postal voting, for those who cannot vote in person. According to Atty. Marin, the COMELEC aims to register 1.6M overseas voters before 30 September 2021, and almost 1.43M new voters have so far been registered as of 09 July 2021. The overseas Filipino voting population in Singapore plays a significant role in the elections since it ranks second in the Asia-Pacific region and third worldwide.
The 3rd Ugnayan also included an introductory presentation of Community Chest (ComChest) by Ms. Jessica Yeo, Assistant Manager for Relations & Engagement. ComChest is the fundraising and engagement arm of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS), which is the national coordinating body for social service agencies with 80 partner charity organizations in Singapore. The Embassy’s Cultural Section and Community Chest have agreed to pursue activities and projects which will enhance the engagement of the FilCom, such as taking an active part in providing community support to the needy members of Singapore society.
The virtual meeting was streamed live via the Embassy’s official Facebook page and was attended by 46 FilCom leaders on Zoom. It has so far been viewed 1,400 times through the Embassy’s official Facebook page. -END-
