The number of Filipinos living and working abroad who were able to cast their votes for the 2016 presidential elections reached a new record, according to the chief overseas voting secretariat of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
DFA overseas voting secretariat chief Edgardo Castro said that his committee and Comelec Commissioner Arthur Lim, chief of the OAV Steering Committee, set a voters’ turnout of 407,000.
“Official data was 407,000 out of 1.3-registered voters,” Castro said at the National Canvassing Center.
Castro said that the voters’ turnout this year broke the 12-year record, surpassing the turnout of 233,000 Filipinos who voted in 2004.
“But just remember what we are looking at is a high record of 233,000 in 2004, we have practically doubled that,” Castro told the reporters in an interview.
He attributed the record to the Comelec’s aggressive campaign during the registration period.
The OAV panel garnered 1.3-million registered voters, surpassing the 737,000 overseas individuals who were listed in 2013.
In the 2010 election, the voter turnout was 146,650 or 24.86 percent while in 2013, there were 112,110 individuals who voted.
The law mandated a month-long overseas absentee voting which opened last April 9 in 95 Philippine posts worldwide.
In the OAV arena, presumptive president Rodrigo Duterte and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Mrcos Jr. led the presidential and vice presidential race.
At least 0.64 percent of OAV votes reached the transparency server of the Comelec at the National Canvassing Center in Pasay City.
Based on the unofficial report, Duterte garnered 5,096 votes from Filipino living and working abroad, followed by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago with 999; Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel Roxas came third with 708 votes; Senator Grace Poe, 507; and Vice President Jejomar Binay, 157 votes.
In the vice presidential race, Marcos was the overseas Filipinos’ top bet so far with 3,673 votes. Trailing him was Senator Alan Peter Cayetano with 2,553 votes while LP bet Leni Robredo was third with 896 votes. Senators Francis Escudero, Antonio Trillanes IV and Gregorio Honasan had 249, 54, 34 votes, respectively.
In the Senatorial contest, LP’s Emmanuel Joel Villanueva led the race with 4,293 votes. Trailing was Emmanuel Pacquiao with 3,790; Francis Pangilinan, 3,703; Richard Gordon, 3,176; Franklin Drilon, 3,56; Vicente Sotto III , 3,078; Ralph Recto, 2,938; Sergio Osemeña III, 2,921; Neri Colmenares 2,661; Maria Susana Ople, 2,637; Panfilo Lacson, 2,586; and, Juan Miguel Zubiri, 2,343.