New Delhi, 20 March 2015 – The Philippine Embassy in New Delhi welcomed 24 year-old Joanna Margarita San Pedro who registered as a first time voter on Friday, 20 March 2015. 

A Metro Manila native, Joanna works in a Mumbai-based non-profit organization, ATMA.  ATMA works to deliver high quality education to underprivileged children and youth by building the capacity and improving the organizational development of education non-profits and social enterprises through consultancy, volunteer services, training and exchange platform. Since its founding in 2007, ATMA has reached out to over 25,000 underprivileged children and youth through 24 education non-profits and social enterprises.

Joanna firmly believes that each vote is important, which is why she braved the 1,424 km journey from Mumbai to New Delhi.  She reasons that if a person does not vote then he or she does not have a right to comment or complain about the resulting leadership.  The leaders, after all, are chosen by the people through free and democratic elections.  Since she did not want to miss her chance to have her voice heard, Joanna contacted the Embassy in New Delhi to inquire if she could register here.  When she received the positive reply, she jumped on the chance to register at the same time as renewing her Philippine passport.

Joanna has sound advice to fellow first-time voters, “Know your candidates.  Don’t just vote for a candidate because everybody else does.  Being overseas is not an excuse not to vote.”

The Philippine Embassy in New Delhi encourages all Filipinos in India and Filipino community organizations to register or to update their registration details in preparation for the May 2016 Presidential Elections.  Registration can be done from Monday to Friday until 31 October 2015.