MANILA, 20 April — Sen. Edgardo Angara has asked non-government organizations (NGOs) to help get the bill on absentee voting enacted by June.
“We are already almost in the final lap and we cannot afford any disagreement,” Angara said at a legislators forum on the absentee voting bill.
In fact, Angara said, NGOs abroad are going to be asked to help in the absentee voting process.
He added “it took us some time to bind together a coalition in the legislature that will push for the passage of this bill. Let us not unravel this because of some recriminations in the past.”
Angara emphasized the importance of the bill, which he said would allow 7.41 million Filipinos abroad to vote, including 3.05 million overseas workers, 2.74 million permanent residents and 1.6 undocumented Filipinos abroad.
The illegal or undocumented Filipinos abroad were originally excluded from the coverage of the bill, but Angara said he put this in because it was expressly requested by the overseas Filipinos he consulted.
The same Filipinos had also requested that provisions be made to allow on-site counting and Angara acceded to this. He said this would make the overseas Filipinos more involved in the election process and also give them a chance to safeguard the votes they cast.
He again assured that the bill would be passed before congress recesses in June 2002, adding that “the implementation of the bill will not be dependent on the modernization of the Comelec (Commission on Elections).”
Angara said that the bill failed to muster enough support within the legislature in the past. “No one really exerted an effort to put together a coalition of support within the legislature. The coalition of support outside was very strong but no one inside the Senate or the House who voted.”
“The issue is not whether this will pass or not. This will pass. The issue is whether or not Congress will support it. Speaker Jose de Venecia and Senate President Drilon have bargained to the hilt. All the political parties are backing and supporting it,” Angara said.
