Posting of list of overseas voters in websites legal – Comelec
MANILA, Philippines — A day before the start of the month-long voting period for overseas Filipinos, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Saturday clarified that posting of the Certified List of Overseas Voters in websites is in compliance with Republic Act (RA) No. 10590.
This is in response to a statement made by the Computer Professionals’ Union (CPU) condemning the Comelec for publicly uploading the list of all registered overseas Filipino voters online as a breach of data privacy and security.
The CPU said that the “public release of this information – including full names, voter registration dates, and geographic location – is a massive red flag.”
READ: 2025 polls: Comelec assures online overseas voting is ‘protected’
The Comelec’s Task Force Katotohanan, Katapatan at Katarungan labeled the post as malicious and false.
“[A]ng paglalathala ng Certified List of Overseas Voters sa website ay siya mismong itinatakda ng batas, at isa sa mga kinakailangan gawin ng COMELEC upang ipatupad ang RA No. 10590,” Comelec said in a statement.
(Publication of Certified List of Overseas Voters in websites is mandated by the law, and one of the duties of the COMELEC is to implement RA No. 10590.)
“Ang pahayag na ang naturang online publication ng listahan ay hindi lamang malisyoso kundi mali at walang basehan sa batas,” the poll body added.
(The statement on the online publication of lists is not just malicious but is also erroneous and baseless.)
The Comelec specifically highlighted a provision of the Section 8 of RA 10590 or An Act Providing for a System of Overseas Absentee Voting which states that one of the duties of the Resident Election Registration Board (RERB) is to “(a) Post in the bulletin boards of the embassy or consulates or at the OFOV [Office for Overseas Voting], as the case may be, and in their respective websites, the names of the applicants and the dates when their applications shall be heard, as well as the place where the RERB will hold its hearing.”
Also among the RERB’s functions is to “(e) Prepare a list of all approved applications during each hearing and post at the same at the bulletin boards of the embassy or consulates or at the OFOV, as the case may be, and in their respective websites.”
The Comelec also pointed out Section 20 of the same act, stating that the “Commission shall prepare the Certified List of Overseas Voters of CLOV not later than ninety (90) days before the start of the overseas voting period, and furnish within the same period electronic and hard copies thereof to the appropriate posts, which shall post the same in their bulletin boards and/or websites within ten (10) days from receipt thereof.”
READ: Comelec reminds overseas voters of pre-enrollment period for 2025 polls
Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia on Friday said that around 48,000 out of 1.2 million registered overseas Filipino voters have enrolled so far in the poll body’s pre-enrollment period for the 2025 elections.
Registered overseas voters are required to go through this step to obtain a unique code which they can use to access the online voting.
The period for the internet voting will run from April 13 to May 12, 7 p.m. (Philippine standard time).
Seventy-seven posts across the world will implement internet voting for the first time, while 16 posts will use automated counting machines to cast votes.
