Robredo says BPO workers should be qualified for absentee voting

Vice President Leni Robredo on Monday said that she would ask the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to open absentee voting for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) workers.

She said that this was to ensure that the 1.2 million-strong workforce would not be disenfranchised in Eleksyon 2022.

"I will write to the Comelec and ask them to open voting centers for BPO employees," Robredo said.

"The main purpose of the petition is to make sure that our BPO employees are not disenfranchised because they might not be able to vote because of the nature of their work," she added.

"In Cebu, I think there’s almost 200 thousand. But all over the Philippines, they are about 1.2 million employees," Robredo said.

Robredo said she would ask the Comelec to open voting centers for BPO worker, adding that the long-term solution was "to amend an Executive Order, where certain segment in society are allowed to do absentee voting."

"You know, OFWs abroad are allowed to do absentee voting, uniformed personnel, other government officials who do election duty," Robredo said.
 
Robredo said the  was a significant number of voters. She said more Filipinos should be allowed to avail of the absentee voting method.

"That is a lot, considering that because of the work arrangements, it would be very difficult for them to you know wake up in the middle of the day just to be able to vote, [And so] we’re filing the petition [before Comelec]," Robredo said.

"All Filipinos who do the same kind of work that BPO people do will benefit from the amendment of– of the Executive Order which will include them in the categorization that they should also be entitled to absentee voting privileges," Robredo said. -NB, GMA News