Handful registered absentee voters may lead to repeal of law
by JULIE JAVELLANA-SANTOS
Comment/Feedback

MANILA – OVERSEAS Filipinos face the repeal of their much fought for overseas absentee voting law (OAVL) if registration figures continue to be dismal, a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official bared to the OFW Journalism Consortium recently.

Comelec Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr. told the Consortium that if less than a million would register for overseas absentee voting, this would make the election process too expensive as had been alleged when the bill was being debated upon in the Philippine Congress.

He said he deplores the fact that only a little over 2,500 signed up to vote for the 2007 elections for posts in local governments from the Governor to the barangay, the basic Philippine political unit.

"We have to prove to them [members of the Joint Congressional Oversight
Committee on overseas absentee voting] that enacting the bill was worth it," Tuason said.

He said the low registration turnout of Filipinos overseas –at 380,000– for the 2004 polls could be attributed to birth pains and could thus be passed off as inconsequential.

However, in the run up to the polls in the next two years, Tuason worries the annual increase at less than a percent may not hit the target and legislators may push the law into the repeal bin.

Still, Tuason said Congress might consider keeping the law if total registrants numbered about a million worldwide.

Government estimates a total of eight million Filipinos live and work temporarily or permanently in more than 190 countries worldwide. Of these, an estimated three million are considered eligible to vote while still in the host country.

However, Dubai-based overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Januar Aguja said the registration process was difficult. He chided it was made difficult mostly by uninformed embassy personnel.

"To be honest, it was easier to get a credit card than to register to vote," Aguja added. Some Filipinos overseas have insights running on a similar theme.

Poll toll
HONG Kong-based overseas Filipina Daphne Ceniza-Kuok confirmed that since the 2004 presidential elections, registration in the former Crown Colony has gone –and still is going– very slowly.

"The response is not as enthusiastic as during the first time that we did it," she added.

Ceniza-Kuok said this could be traced to several factors, one of them being the Filipino's penchant for waiting for the last minute: registration will last until August 31, 2006.

During the last registration period, in fact, registration figures almost doubled during the last few weeks allotted for the signing up, she added.
Another factor she cited is the "discouragement [sic] brought about by the many defects of the law and weaknesses during implementation and the general opinion that no matter how clean the process is abroad, we can still be cheated (during counting) in the Philippines".

The victory of Gloria Arroyo in the last presidential polls has been questioned on allegations of fraud, with Armed Forces of the Philippines intelligence officers citing Comelec Commissioner Virgilio "Garci" Garcillano having a pivotal role.

The President's apology hasn't assuaged her critics, foes and opposition groups who said they continue to doubt Arroyo's ascendancy to power. Analysts have said the government has remained suspect.

Marvin Bionat, a Filipino community leader in New Hampshire, agrees, saying that the disinterest of many Filipinos abroad with the 2007 elections is "because of the political uncertainties in the country." Bionat, who has been in New Hampshire since 1988, added that: "Under normal circumstances, it's [absentee voting is] a great initiative".

"But the problem we're facing is one of legitimacy," he added.

Likewise, Bionat said the government has sent mixed signals to voters overseas.

"While the government is promoting our participation in national elections [through the voter registration drive], [President Arroyo] and her allies are also pushing for a shift to a parliamentary system, with district representatives comprising the parliament and choosing from among themselves the country's prime minister," he added.

"Where does that leave us overseas voters, who were enfranchised to vote only for national positions and NOT for local and district leaders –on the ground that we don't know much about local issues?" Bionat said.

Declines
ON THE other hand, Filipino community leader in Saudi Arabia Alex Bello cited the "very low turnout in voter registration" was due to a "severe lack of information dissemination".

Bello lamented that embassy officials snubbed his offer to help and request for a meeting of all OAV advocates and Filipino leaders.

Hence, he said he wasn't surprised that registration figures in Saudi Arabia represented a little over 1.6 percent of the worldwide total figure of 2,525 new registrants.

Comelec data cited that for the 2007 polls, only 817 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Asia Pacific countries registered, 474 in Middle East and Africa, 782 in the Americas, and 592 in Europe. Additionally, 546 signed up at the main office of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) in Mandaluyong City.

Registrants in Asia Pacific countries mostly came from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. There, 316 OFWs signed up to vote in 2007 (out of a total 817). In the Middle East, the most number of registrants came from Saudi Arabia at 152 (out of a total 474). In the Americas, the 235 registrants from San Francisco outnumbered the rest (out of a total 782) and in Europe, 237 OFWs in London dominated the rest (out of a total 592).

During the first implementation of the OAVL enacted in February 2003, the partial unofficial tally of OAV registrants was 360,561.

According to Catherine Maceda, former vice chair of the OAVS-DFA, this represented 37 percent of 975,000, the maximum number of projected absentee voters for May 2004 elections.

Actual registration figures per region (as of October 7, 2003) placed the number of those who signed up in the Middle East at 155,384 representing 43 percent of voters, 154,719 in the Asia Pacific region also representing 43 percent of the OAV electorate, 12,956 or 4 percent in the Americas, and 37,522 or 10% in Europe.

The posts with the highest registration figures were Hong Kong (90,233), Riyadh (64,325) and Jeddah (32,809).

Firsts
THE OFFICIAL registration period began October 1 and Undersecretary for Special Concern Rafael Seguis said a 42-year-old overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Hong Kong was the first overseas absentee registrant.

Seguis added that Gwendolyn Limson, a native of Pulo Pandan, Negros Occidental, was the first recorded Filipino to register October 1 as registration resumed at various Philippine Embassies and Consulates abroad.

During the first three days of registration, 146 Filipinos registered in the Philippine Posts in Hong Kong SAR, Brunei, Phnom Penh, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bahrain, Kuwait, Amman, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Riyadh, Jeddah, Santiago, Guam, Saipan. OAV registration was also held in MECO, Taipeh. During this period, the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong posted the highest number of registrants with 67 OFWs registering so far, Undersecretary Seguis said.

The recorded 146 registrants during the first three days of registration was a considerably low number compared to the first three days of registration two years ago.

Hong Kong alone registered a total of 628 Filipinos on the first day of registration on August 1, 2003, the highest registrant turnout that year. However, the second wave of registration this year is expected to be slower than the first, given that the registration period will be spread out over a period of 11 months as opposed to just two months in 2003.

A surge in the number of registrants is expected during the last three months of the registration period as Filipinos abroad try to beat the 31 August 2006 deadline and as field registrations become more frequent, Seguis said.

The DFA is government's primary agency tasked to implement the OAV law via its various foreign service posts. The agency said it has established a seven-day work week during the course of the registration period and an inter-agency unit at the POEA building so that Filipinos can register before they leave the country for work abroad.end

Do away with overseas voting?

On the story “Handful registered absentee voters may lead to repeal of law” by Ms. Julie Javellana-Santos (Volume 4 Number 9, November 30, OFW Journalism Consortium newspacket)
note: the comment below was taken from the website Philippine News (www.philippinenews.com), which used the above story of the OFW Journalism Consortium in its December 7-13 issue. It was headlined “Few overseas voters may cause repeal of law”

THE intent of the overseas absentee voting law (OAVL) may have been noble in making overseas Filipinos participate in voting for our leaders, but, as we have found out, it was at most an exercise in futility.

To begin with, the mechanics of registering Filipinos working overseas in 90 countries is a daunting task.
There appears to be no enthusiasm to register for the next election, and the paltry number would not make a difference in who will be the winners. I think the OAVL needs to be scrapped, as suggested.

Speaking strictly as a Filipino-American, it makes no sense either for most of us living here permanently to go through a labyrinthine process just to be part of a small number who want to cast their ballots for elections back home. We don't know much about the candidates, and voting such as we did in the 2003 elections was at most a waste of time. It may have been symbolic of our dual citizenship, but meaningless just the same.

I don't even want to guess at how many among us went through the process of becoming dual citizens. Though still a Filipino by heart, I owe my loyalty to the United States first, knowing there are other ways I can contribute to the Philippines. There is something that troubles me about dual citizenship, which is why the State Department does not encourage it.

If it is too expensive for the Department of Foreign Affairs to go on with this effort to register overseas Filipinos, with but little to show for it, let Congress abolish the law. Doing nothing will perpetuate the sham that it has turned out to be.

Yours, Greg Garcia <posted in www.philippinenews.com>