First-ever internet voting in full swing in absence of SC TRO -Garcia

Internet voting remains in full swing as the Supreme Court has not yet acted on a petition seeking to halt the first-ever virtual ballot casting of over 50,000 Filipinos overseas for the 2025 elections.

MANILA, Philippines — Internet voting remains in full swing as the Supreme Court has not yet acted on a petition seeking to halt the first-ever virtual ballot casting of over 50,000 Filipinos overseas in the 2025 elections.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman George Erwin Garcia clarified this on Monday as the high court has yet to resolve the petition of PDP-Laban members, who argued that the use of digital ballots is not authorized by existing laws and that the poll body “cannot be allowed to introduce this new system through mere administrative issuances only.”

“Since there is no TRO (temporary restraining order), we have to proceed to implement our En Banc resolution promulgated two years ago,” Garcia told INQUIRER.net in a Viber message, referring to the Comelec Resolution No. 11061.

Garcia previously said the Comelec is anticipating that somebody would question the first-ever overseas voting before the high court.

READ: Comelec’s Garcia move vs Internet voting expected after PDP-Laban petition

But Garcia also argued that Republic Act No. 10590 or the Overseas Absentee Voting Act allows internet voting as it authorizes the poll body to “explore other modes or systems using automated election system”.

All systems go

That being said, Garcia said that as of Monday, all 77 overseas voting and counting system (OVCS) posts worldwide were already open.

He said the post in Honolulu was the last one to open at around 2:00 a.m. Philippine standard time or 8:00 a.m. Sunday in Hawaii standard time.

Also, all 16 automated counting machine posts have also successfully conducted open voting procedures.

“With that, all 93 Posts have opened voting for their respective jurisdictions for the 2025 National Elections overseas,” Garcia said.

A total of 54,575 voters registered in the OVCS as of 5:00 a.m. on Monday, according to the Comelec chief.

Previously, Filipinos overseas could only vote via personal appearance at designated Philippine legations or through mailed ballots.

Overseas voting period is between April 13 to May 12.

READ: Overseas voting for 2025 elections begins

One-fourth of LAVs disapproved

In a related development, more than one-fourth of local absentee voting (LAV) applications were disapproved by the Comelec.

As of Monday, the Comelec  said it has received a total of 72,236 LAV applications.

Of those, 57,689 were approved while 14,547 were disapproved.

The approved applicants consist of mostly military and police personnel, as well as members of the media who will cover the elections.

Of the 57,689, Comelec said a total of 29,030 are from the military, 23,448 are from the police force, 4,206 are government personnel, while 1,005 are members of the media.

Local absentee voting periods will be held on April 28, 29 and 30, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Local and overseas absentee voters can only vote for senators and party-list groups.