The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) reported Friday a successful turnout of local absentee voting in military camps.

Army chief, Maj. Gen. Reynaldo, was among the military absentee voters who cast their votes at the Commission on Elections (Comelec)-designated polling center at the AFP grandstand inside Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Col. Ricardo Nepomuceno, AFP Task Force HOPE (Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections) spokesman, said that as of press time, at least 65 percent of the 19,722 absentee voters from the military were able to cast their votes.

Nepomuceno said they expect up to 70 percent of the 19,722 AFP absentee voters to cast their vote until 6:00 p.m., when the Comelec-designated polling centers for the military absentee voting would close.

Absentee voting for the AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP) was allowed by the Comelec from April 28 to 30. This is to enable soldiers and policemen who will be doing poll duties on May 10 to exercise their right of suffrage.

Of the 19,722 military personnel who applied to avail themselves of absentee voting, 1,420 were based in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Absentee voting for the AFP was held in military camps, including its main headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo, and at the major AFP service units’ headquarters – the Army in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, the Navy along Roxas Boulevard in Manila, and the Air Force at Villamor Airbase in Pasay City.

Mapagu said, “I am happy I was able to vote because it is an expression of our will to vote. As a citizen your voice must be heard in selecting our national and local candidates.”

The Army chief also said he is not dismayed that the absentee voting for the military was done manually.

“Ok lang, whatever it is sana kahit paano maging mapayapa ang election at lalo na credible ang resulta,” he said.

He also expressed hope that all those who applied for absentee voting in the AFP would cast their votes.

Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo, Navy spokesman, expressed his apprehension about the first-ever automated elections in the country.

“I am apprehensive not because I dread technology, but because how fellow Filipinos straddle painfully between the cheating-ridden manual election and the automated election with least human intervention as the prospect of a clean and suppose to be honest poll,” said Arevalo.

“As a soldier sworn to secure for them an honest, orderly and peaceful election, my apprehension is how will the people accept the result of the elections given the imperfections of the machines and the system,” he said.