PR-018-2022
(04 April 2022, Singapore) With only seven days to go before the Philippine Overseas Voting (OV), which will be held from 10 April 2022 to 9 May 2022, and as an integral part of its election information drive, the Philippine Embassy in Singapore held on 3 April 2022, a Special Ugnayan segment with the Filipino community entitled, “Halalan 2022: Voters’ Education Forum” to share updates, discuss the Embassy’s preparations, and provide guidance and reminders to Filipino voters for the upcoming Philippine elections.
In his welcome remarks, Philippine Ambassador to Singapore H.E. Joseph del Mar Yap conveyed that the much anticipated elections will be the first electoral exercises that will be held amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that the significance of the elections is that Filipinos will be choosing the leaders who will lead the Philippines towards post-pandemic recovery.
Ambassador Yap also called on the 83,229 Filipino registered voters in Singapore to exercise their right to vote. He shared that in the past two elections, held in 2019 and 2016, Singapore was one of the countries with the highest overseas voter turnout, not only in the Asia Pacific region, but in the world. Ambassador Yap also expressed the hope that Filipino voters in Singapore would be able to sustain this track record for the 2022 election.
Key Embassy officials provided presentations on the following topics: General Information on Overseas Voting; Online Pre-verification System; Reminders for Voters; Step-by-Step Procedure for Voting; and Embassy Preparations to ensure a safe, peaceful and orderly elections. They also addressed issues and concerns raised by the audience in the Q&A segment.
One of the highlights of the forum was the presentation on the online pre-verification system, which aims to ensure a safer, more convenient and more orderly conduct of overseas voting by reducing the queue waiting time at the Embassy. Voters who have pre-verified will be able proceed directly to their precinct to vote without having to undergo the verification process at the Embassy. The use of this online pre-verification system is optional. However, walk-in voters may expect a longer waiting time to vote during their visit to the Embassy if they have not been pre-verified.
The tagline, “Kabayan, kayo ang kaagapay sa matagumpay na halalan,” emphasizes the importance of creating a solid partnership between the Embassy and the Filipino community to ensure an orderly and safe Philippine overseas voting amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Another key message of the information campaign was to encourage members of the Filcom to pre-register and vote early to avoid long queues in the last few days of the voting period.
With almost 100 participants in attendance via Zoom webinar and more than 4.4k views on Facebook during its live airtime from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 noon, the Special Ugnayan for Halalan 2022 successfully reached a wide audience. The episode has reached 12k people through the Embassy’s official Facebook page as of this writing. (END).