Day: April 12, 2022

DOHA – The Philippine Embassy in Qatar kicked off the 30-day overseas voting period for the 2022 National and Local Elections by welcoming a registered voter from Davao Occidental as the first person to vote on 10 April 2022.

Overseas registered voters were ushered to the three polling precincts of the Embassy, which will cater to more than 40,000 registered voters in Qatar.

Duly accredited poll watchers from concerned political parties were in attendance at the opening of Voting Counting Machines (VCMs), during the voting hours, and at the closing of the VCMs.

The Embassy voting hours were extended to 5 p.m. because of a one-hour delay in the morning owing to VCM procedural requirements that had to be undertaken by duly constituted Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEIs) of the Embassy in the presence of the poll watchers.

During the 30-day period for overseas voting, the Embassy will be open from Sundays to Saturdays from 7:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. to assist overseas voters.

Source: Republic of Philippines Department Of Foreign Affairs

PASAY CITY— The Philippines and Indonesia reaffirmed strong bilateral ties and charted new areas of cooperation during the convening of the Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) of the 7th Philippines-Indonesia Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) via virtual format on 11-12 April 2022.

DFA Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs Ma. Theresa P. Lazaro led the Philippine delegation, while the Indonesian side was spearheaded by Director General for Asia-Pacific and African Affairs Abdul Kadir Jailani of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The JCBC facilitated substantial discussions on areas of mutual concern such as political and security cooperation, border and cross-border issues, economic cooperation, socio-cultural and people-to-people-exchanges, and judicial and consular matters. Both sides also exchanged views on regional and global issues, including the ASEAN Outlook in the Indo-Pacific, the South China Sea, the situation in Myanmar, and other geopolitical developments.

The two senior officials cited the maritime border delimitation agreement in 2014 as a highlight of the good neighborliness of the two archipelagos, and welcomed the preparatory work for talks on the delimitation of the two countries’ continental shelf.

Both sides agreed to negotiate a new plan of action that will lay out priorities and bilateral cooperation for the next five years.

“Truly, Philippines-Indonesia cooperation has come a long way, marked with great success, and has expanded to many new areas of collaboration,” Undersecretary Lazaro said, as she expressed her satisfaction that both sides were able to comprehensively discuss their progress in bilateral cooperation and future initiatives.

The JCBC is the primary dialogue mechanism between the Philippines and Indonesia to review accomplishments on mutual collaboration initiatives, exchange views on issues of mutual interest, and consider plans for enhancing cooperation. The Ministerial meeting of the 7th JCBC will be held on a mutually agreed schedule later this year.

Source: Republic of Philippines Department Of Foreign Affairs

MANAMA – In compliance with COMELEC Resolution No. 10751, the Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEIs) of the Philippine Embassy in the Kingdom of Bahrain conducted its Final Testing and Sealing (FTS) of the Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) at the Embassy lobby on 02 April 2022. The FTS was conducted to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the VCMs to be used in the upcoming National Elections.

The FTS procedure, which started from 1:00PM and ended at 10:30PM, was performed in order to prepare the VCMs for the actual Overseas Voting period which will start on 10 April 2022, 8:00AM (Bahrain time) and will end on 09 May 2022, 2:00PM, Bahrain time or 7:00PM Philippine time.

Philippine Chargé d’ Affaires a.i. to Bahrain Maria Paz G. Cortes welcomed and thanked the members of the Filipino community in the Kingdom of Bahrain who participated and observed the FTS procedure. CDA Cortes mentioned the importance of the activity towards ensuring a secure, accurate, free and fair elections and urged the community to spread the word and help the Embassy in its efforts to encourage more Filipinos to participate in this democratic electoral process. Consul Bryan Jess T. Baguio provided the general information and guidelines to be observed during the month-long election period and provided a walk-through of the actual FTS procedure.

Both VCMs and all SD cards that were tested functioned properly as expected. The Election Returns (ERs) of the SD cards used during the FTS provided accurate results when counterchecked through manual counting of the sample ballots that were fed by the members of the Filipino community in the two VCMs.

Source: Republic of Philippines Department Of Foreign Affairs