Missions ready for Philippine overseas voting
Pinoy envoy to win over residents with its cuisine
dubai — It’s all systems go for the upcoming Philippine overseas absentee voting (OAV) in the UAE after the Philippine Consulate in Dubai successfully conducted the final testing and sealing of the vote-counting machines (VCM) on Saturday.
The month-long OAV will begin on Saturday, April 13, and will run until May 13 at the Philippine missions in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Filipinos abroad can elect 12 senators and a party-list representative in Congress for the upcoming mid-term elections under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Consul-General Paul Raymund Cortes said Dubai has the biggest number of registered voters among all the Philippine diplomatic posts in the world. Data from the Commission on Elections’ Office for Overseas Voting shows that there are over 1.8 million registered overseas absentee voters across the globe, and Dubai has around 209,000 voters while Abu Dhabi has 109,000.
In Dubai, Cortes said 11 clustered precincts will be set up at the consulate and the Philippine Overseas Labour Office. They will also deploy mobile voting precincts in areas with a large concentration of Filipino expats. The consulate will announce details of the field voting will happen, after the approval of UAE authorities, Cortes added.
At the Philippine embassy in Abu Dhabi, staff members are all set for the ‘tedious month-long exercise’, said Hjayceelyn Quintana, ambassador of the Philippines to the UAE.
“A lot of training has been given to the staff on the conduct of elections. It’s an automated voting system and we need to know how to operate those machines. There are committees to ensure procedures are carried out according to the rules of the Commission on Elections,” she said.
Quintana noted that the mid-term election in May is intensely fought back in the Philippines but she isn’t aware of any candidate flying into the country for campaigning.
For clean, transparent elections
Cortes told Khaleej Times that the testing and sealing of the vote-counting machines were conducted “to prove to the public that the VCMs are properly calibrated to read the actual votes cast”.
“We also made the testing open to
the public to dispel any doubt as to the legitimacy of the exercise. We also checked that the SD (secure digital) cards and other election paraphernalia are intact and functioning well,” he added.
Electronic counting for the Philippine polls has been adopted since the 2010 general elections. Voters would have to shade an oval preceding the candidate’s name on a paper ballot that is registered with an optical mark recognition (OMR) machine.
The VCMs, which were synchronised with the Philippine time (four hours ahead of the UAE), would then print a voting receipt and electronically count all the votes, which would be transmitted to the board of canvassers. During the overseas voting, Philippine foreign service personnel will serve as members of the special board of canvassers, special ballot reception and custody group, special board of election inspectors, canvas consolidation system operators, and VCM operators. In Dubai, a total of 57 consulate staff members and volunteers will perform the election tasks on top of their regular consular work, according to Cortes. abu dhabi — Culinary diplomacy is on the Philippines embassy’s menu as food is set to play a crucial role in promoting Filipino identity in the UAE and boosting bilateral relations. The embassy has major events planned throughout the year to promote its culture in the country, a top envoy said.
As a start, the embassy is trying to win people’s hearts and minds through good food. When the community celebrates its Independence Day in June, a Filipino food conference will be held to give residents a taste of different dishes.
“We will now be active in promoting our culture. This will be our first attempt to do it in a big way. The food conference in June will be a ‘things-of-the-Philippines’ kind of festival where, for a month, we will work with restaurants and establishments dealing with food,” Ambassador of the Philippines to the UAE Hjayceelyn Quintana said.
She noted that the ‘Year of Tolerance’ is the perfect opportunity for the Filipino community to get involved. “I have encouraged our groups to come up with cultural events and promote our identity, inclusiveness and acceptance of our culture. We are filling up the entire calendar with events. We are also gearing up for Dubai Expo 2020 and I am reaching out to Filipinos and preparing them for works.”
We will now be active in promoting our culture. The food conference in June will be a ‘things-of-thePhilippines’ kind of festival.”
Hjayceelyn Quintana, Ambassador of the Philippines to the UAE
Rice to shape relations
As the UAE plans its diversification of food security options, in the last week of March, Minister of State for Food Security Mariam bint Al Mehairi visited the Philippines and toured its International Rice Research Institute in Laguna.
“Rice is one of the main food items in the UAE’s food basket and we continue our search of finding different rice sources, as well as technologies to grow rice for food security,” Mariam had tweeted, noting that the Philippines is one of the top 10 largest producers of rice in the world.
During her visit to the research institute, she tweeted: “Lots of tests are being done on thousands of rice seed varieties and all are being exposed to vigorous field and lab tests to be able to find the most climate-resilient, high-yielding varieties for the rice farmers.”
And Quintana said both the countries are exploring ways of cooperation in food security. “I was there assisting the minister in the Philippines. The minister is trying to study our rice production technology. She was able to conduct an in-depth study of our agricultural technology.”