Overseas voting registration resumes; 16 people enlist on first day

The overseas voting registration for the 2016 Presidential Elections resumed on May 6 with 16 Filipinos becoming the newest registrants from the Northeast.

The registration took place at the lobby of the Philippine Center where applicants waited for their turn to submit their passports and other official documents to the Philippine Consulate General.

Maria Cristina Dujan, a New York resident, was the first registrant while Amelia Amontos Lasig, who was born in 1947, was the first senior citizen who registered at the consulate. Both women dual U.S. and Philippine citizenships.

The conduct of the first of day registration was orderly and peaceful and many consular applicants were pleased to learn that voter registration has resumed, according to a statement from the Philippine Consulate.

In 2013, 5,700 Filipinos registered as overseas voters at the consulate, which has jurisdiction over the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

The 2016 Presidential Elections will determine the 16th president of the country from the time it became a republic in 1899 under Emilio Aguinaldo.