Spare 20 minutes to vote, overseas Filipinos urged

THE DEPARTMENT of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has appealed to some 1.37 million registered Filipino voters abroad to spare 20 minutes of their time to vote in this year’s elections.

The overseas absentee voting will begin on April 9  in 30 Philippine embassies and consulates.

Filipinos in the US, Europe and Singapore will be voting using ballots mailed to them by the embassies and consulates. Filipinos in those countries “need only to spare 20 minutes of their time” to fill the ballots with the presidential, vice presidential and 12 senatorial candidates of their choice, information material said.

Embassy and consulate personnel as well as 500 trained additional staff will conduct the overseas voting.

The DFA said Filipinos in the Middle East will have 90 days to cast their votes beginning April 9.

Filipinos in the Middle East need only “spare one day” to bring change to their country in the next six years, said an information material from the DFA Overseas Voting Secretariat.

The DFA will set up ten voting stations in the Middle East, in particular, in Tel Aviv, Doha, Kuwait, Manama, Beirut, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Riyadh and Al Khobar.