RP posts in the Americas conclude OAV training

With a recently-concluded training held in Los Angeles on how Filipinos abroad can vote for the May 10 elections back home, Philippine diplomatic posts in the Americas have hiked up preparations for overseas absentee voting (OAV) which is set to start in just over a week. In a release posted Thursday on the Department of Foreign Affairs website, the Philippine Embassy in Ottawa reported that its office and Consulates General in Canada and the Americas conducted a training for OAV last March 11 to 13. Embassy and Consulate officials and staff in Canada, the U.S. and other posts in Central and South America participated in the training which was held at the Wilshire Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Attending the training from Canada were Philippine Ambassador to Canada Jose S. Brillantes as Head of the Special Board of Canvassers (SBOC), Minister and Consul General Joseph Gerard B. Angeles as Head of the Special Ballot Election Inspectors (SBEI) and Alvar E. Rosales as Head of the Special Ballot Reception and Custody Group (SBRCG). Also from Canada were the SBEI and SBRCG heads for the Philippine Consulates-General in Canada, namely Consul-General Ruth Morales Prado and Abigail Monte-Ma of Vancouver, and Consul-General Minverva Falcon and Evangeline Cayongcat of Toronto. The training was conducted by a team from the Commission on Elections headed by Commissioner Armando Velasco, in cooperation with the Philippine Consulate-General in Los Angeles. Philippine elections—the first to be automated nationwide—are scheduled on May 10, 2010. Through the OAV procedures, Filipino voters abroad will be allowed to vote for the President, the Vice President, senators and congressional party-list representatives. Overseas voting will start on April 10 and will last for a month.—Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV