The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) on Monday signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Office for Overseas Voting (OFOV) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) for overseas voting.

According to COMELEC Chairperson George Garcia, there were 1.697 million registered Filipino voters abroad in 2022.

"Hindi naman po kami naniniwala na yun lang ang Filipinos abroad, mga 10 to 12 million hanggang 15 million pa nga ang Filipinos abroad pero nakakalungkot 1.697 [million] lang ang mga botante natin na nagparehistro para sa 2022 elections (We do not believe that those are the only Filipinos abroad, there are about 10 to 12 million to 15 million Filipinos abroad, but it is unfortunate that only 1.697 million of our voters have registered for the 2022 elections)," Garcia noted.

Of the number, Garcia said only 40.5 percent, or almost 600,000 voted last election, the highest turnout so far.

He lamented very few Filipino voter registrations abroad despite the ongoing efforts of the poll body.

"Bakit ganun kababa? Samantalang ang ginagastos ng COMELEC almost P500 million. On a per capita, napakalaki po nun. Tapos pabobotohin mo ay only almost 600,000 lang po (Why is it so low? Whereas the Comelec spends almost P500 million. On a per capita basis, that's huge. Then you vote, it's only almost P600,000)," Garcia said.

"At dun sa 1.697 [millon], deactivated pa dun 600,000. So meron ka na lang isang milyon na hopefully ngayon tumaas dahil tayo ay ongoing ang registration simula nung last year (And our of the 1.697 million, 600,000 have been deactivated. So you only have one million that will hopefully increase now because we have the ongoing registration since last year)," he added.

Garcia said they expect to register 3 million overseas voters for next year's elections.