MANILA, 3 October — Sen. Joker Arroyo yesterday said he will vote for the Senate version of the bill allowing overseas Filipinos to vote once the principle of registration by mail is removed.

“If the sponsor deletes the provision on registration by mail, I will withdraw my objection,” he said during the period of amendments of Senate Bill 2104 sponsored by opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara.

Arroyo said registration by mail opens another avenue for the commission of fraud, a concern that had been plaguing Philippine elections.

Arroyo insisted that overseas Filipinos (OFs) register for elections “when they come home to the Philippines” by swearing before their local election registrars.

He claimed that allowing OFs to register by mail would be granting them a special privilege. “We cannot have a situation where an overseas voter has more rights than an absentee voter. Otherwise, we won’t have equal application of the law,” Arroyo said.

“Let us not say that allowing an overseas Filipino to vote is giving him more rights,” Angara argued. “In fact we are just limiting them (OFs) to voting for national officials.”

Besides, Angara said, only about 5 percent of the total OF voting population (new registrants) needed to register by mail. The other 95 percent, he said, are already registered but cannot vote. They merely needed a certificate to vote as an absentee voter to do so. But Arroyo insisted that “if they (OFs) do not even care to register here, why should they be given the vote?”

Angara explained that this provision was inserted into the bill to make the process more convenient for OFs.

Both agreed to talk about this objection and first go over all the proposed amendments in order not to stall the hearing on the amendments. Approved amendments would then be subject to the continuing reservation expressed by Arroyo.

Other amendments provide for:

• Overseas campaigning by candidates for national positions;

• Provision by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) of the necessary systems for voting via electronic mail, Internet or other such secured networks;

• Written notice of counting to duly authorized representatives of political parties, candidates and duly accredited citizens arms;

• Designation of the ambassador or the consul general as chair of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) for on-site counting of ballots;

• Automation by the Comelec of the counting and canvassing of ballots; and

• For the Comelec to have exclusive charge of the enforcement and administration of any elections held abroad.