OFOV official vows glitch-free overseas absentee voting

An official of the Office for Overseas Voting (OFOV) has assured the public that data breaches are unlikely to hit the overseas absentee voting process for the coming midterm polls.

On January 12, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. revealed that the passport maker outsourced by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) "took all" the applicants' data, prompting the DFA to require Filipinos renewing their passports to still submit birth their certificates.

Last January 15, Cebuana Lhuillier detected several attempts to use one of its email servers in an apparent attempt to steal data.

“It is unlikely that this incident will [occur]. While posting the names of overseas voters on our website, we do not post in public sensitive and personal information such as birth dates, addresses, and the like. We adhere to the law (R.A. No. 10173 a.k.a. Data Privacy Act of 2012) and have created measures to protect such,” said Atty. Catherine Fernandez of OFOV in an online interview with GMA News Online.

Also, she added, “The OFOV has drafted the ‘Systems and Data Policy,’ which standardize protocol in processing and securing personal data in the system. In our system, we strictly regulate access to personal data by securing the identity of personnel who will access personal data online like secure encrypted link and use of multi-factor usernames, passwords and biometrics.”

A total of 1,822,173 OFWs have registered for the May 2019 election —1,779,140 were land-based while 43,033 were sea-based —as of end of registration on September 30, 2018.

Of total, 401,390 were from Asia Pacific; 187,624 from the Europe; 887,744 from the Middle East and Africa; and 345,415 were from the Americas.

Filipinos overseas will be voting for national positions only (12 senators and one party-list group) from April 13 to May 13.

Votes will be counted simultaneously with the local counting on Election Day. —LBG, GMA News