2025 polls: Comelec assures online overseas voting is ‘protected’

FILE PHOTO: Commission on Elections Chairperson George Garcia. INQUIRER / NINO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) assured overseas voters that online polling systems for the 2025 midterm elections were “protected.”

Comelec Chairperson George Garcia gave the guarantee amid a Supreme Court petition filed by the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP) seeking to nullify the poll body resolution that introduced the online voting system, citing issues with constitutionality and electoral integrity.

“Protected ba? Yes. Ginagarantiya namin. Dumaan ito sa lahat ng international certification, sa lahat ng source code review. At the same time, lahat ng klase ng security ay in-install na rin namin dito,” Garcia said in a press conference at Camp Aguinaldo on Friday.

(Is it protected? Yes. We guarantee it. This went through all the international certifications, all the source code reviews. At the same time, all forms of security have been installed here.)

“Seventy-five thousand, more or less, ang attempts to hack the system, hindi naman nagiging successful so far. Trained yung mga tauhan namin, maganda yung sistema, 24 hours a day ang pagbabantay namin,” the poll body chief added.

(There have been more or less 75,000 attempts to hack the system and they haven’t been successful so far. Our personnel are trained, the system is good, and our monitoring is 24 hours a day.)

Electronic or online voting systems for overseas voters was introduced through Comelec Resolution No. 11061 issued last September.

Garcia detailed that the Comelec will have 93 voting posts stationed abroad, 77 of which will have internet voting.

Overseas voting will begin on Sunday, April 13.

READ: Online voting for OFWs still on despite SC case

Higher turnout and cost efficiency

There were 1.2 million voters overseas for the 2025 elections, according to Garcia.

This is fewer than the 1.6 million overseas voters registered for the 2022 polls, Garcia added.

The poll body chief further stressed that, in 2022, turnout among overseas voters failed to reach 50 percent.

Data from the commission showed that overseas voter turnout was at 38.61 percent.

“Sana man lang, dahil internet voting tayo, kahit 1.2 million lang ang botante, sana man lang maka-50 percent more [ang turnout],” Garcia said.

(I hope, now that we’re doing internet voting, even though there are only 1.2 million voters, that there’d be more than 50 percent turnout.)

READ: Comelec reminds overseas voters of pre-enrollment period for 2025 polls

He also cited the costs of setting up voting posts and sending out ballots to overseas voters.

“[S]a internet voting, mas mababa ang aming magagastos sa initiative na ito,” Garcia claimed.