MANILA, 4 October — Overseas Filipinos may be able to vote in the 2004 Philippine elections after all.

After weeks of soul-searching, leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives met and agreed to get the long overdue Absentee Voting Bill passed by Oct. 24.

Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Jose de Venecia said the consensus to get the bill moving was arrived at during their informal meeting the other night,.

Present as resource persons during the meeting were Secretary Blas Ople and Undersecretary Arturo Brion from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and commissioners Resurreccion Borra and Luzviminda Tancangco from the Commission on Election (Comelec)

Also present were Senate majority leader Loren Legarda, Senate minority leader Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., and Sen. Edgardo Angara, who is the bill’s principal author and main sponsor in the Senate.

From the House were senior deputy majority leader Francis Joseph Escudero of Sorsogon, senior deputy minority leader Constantino Jaraula of Cagayan de Oro, and Teodoro Locsin Jr. of Makati, Tarlac Reps. Gilbert Teodoro Jr. and Jesli Lapus, and Augusto Syjuco of Iloilo.

According to Drilon, the deadline was set “so that everybody will be comfortable, including the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Comelec (Commission on Election).”

“We will try our best to respond to the expectations of our Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), who are contributing $8 billion every year to our economy,” Speaker de Venecia told reporters yesterday.

Angara said the opposition is fully supportive of the bill, which he described as a recognition of the manifold contributions of overseas Filipinos to the country.

The Senate version of the bill was already approved on third reading by minority senators during their June 3-6 session, but it was recalled by administration senators for further amendments.

Angara insisted that overseas Filipinos be allowed to register by mail as requiring personal registration in the Philippines would be placing an undue burden to them.

Sen. Joker Arroyo, interpellating Angara early this week, sought the removal of the provision which he feared would be misused by election cheats.

But Angara said: “We should not add to the already heavy burden of overseas Filipinos. They have enough of shakedowns at the airports, the squandering of their funds by the OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration) and the feeling of loneliness and isolation. Congress should not be callous,” he said.

Angara cited the fact that most overseas Filipinos normally spend two weeks in the Philippines during their work breaks and personal registration would be an imposition on them.

Some of them do not even avail of these vacations because they are too preoccupied with their careers and the need to raise money for their families in the country, he said.

“If they want to register personally, fine. But they should also be given the option to register by mail,” Angara said.

Angara added that overseas Filipinos are eagerly awaiting the passage of this bill but he estimated that of the 7 million Filipinos abroad, only 3.6 million might be qualified to vote under the law, despite proposals to include even Green Card holders or permanent residents.

He added that of the 3.6 million qualified absentee voters, he would be happy if two million would actually vote.

“This number is substantial and could be decisive in the elections. In the 2001 senatorial elections, the difference between No. 5 and No. 12 was only 300,000 votes,” Angara said.

De Venecia said that after the two houses pass their respective versions of the bill by Oct. 24, the reconciled version should be approved by a joint committee by the end of November.

He said that President Gloria Arroyo had promised to sign the bill into law within 24 hours from its ratification by both chambers.

The legislators also agreed to allocate 1 billion pesos to finance the country’s first-ever overseas balloting.

Word has it that the congressional leaders were prompted to tackle the measure amid mounting pressures from overseas Filipinos and their allies at home, including non-government organizations, church leaders, and members of the media.

It was learned that senior media executives and writers from Manila may have also helped convinced the congressional leaders to deal with the Absentee Voting Bill once and for all.

Members of the media delegation, who were in the Kingdom during the last week of September, had a “heart-to-heart” talk with Filipino community leaders in Riyadh and Jeddah and got convinced that it was about time overseas Filipinos be allowed to participate in Philippine elections.

Under the bills pending in Congress, overseas balloting will cover only the election for president, vice president, senators and party-list representatives.

Rep. Syjuco said Congress must muster the political will to have the bill passed based on the timetable agreed upon in that meeting.

“I am convinced we need the overseas votes. It is our only hope to reform the distressingly flawed electoral system that continues to elect incompetent and insincere official,” he said.