MANILA, 21 October -- Migrante International yesterday said the House of Representives version of the proposed Absentee Voting Law would defeat the purpose of allowing overseas Filipinos to vote if it is allowed to prevail over the Senate version.

"House Bill 3507 is unacceptable and inappropriate to migrant workers long deprived of their right of suffrage," Migrante secretary-general Poe Gratela said in a press statement.

Gratela told Arab News that HB3570 (Absentee Voting Act of 2002) deprives overseas Filipinos of participating in party-list elections, allowing them only to vote for the president, vice president and senator.

It is only through the party-list system that OFWs can find true representation but some unscrupulous congressmen want to deny them that, he said.

"With the absence of this provision, congressmen cannot boast of bright ideas that truly benefit long-disenfranchised migrant workers as well as the underprivileged Filipino masa," Gratela added.

Migrante also scored the "sunset provision" in the House version as offensive because it in effect gives senators and congressmen the power to decide whether or not to continue granting overseas Filipinos the right of suffrage.

The sunset provision is so-called because it allows absentee voting only for 2004 and that its continuity depends on whether Congress wants to grant that right.

"For overseas Filipinos, the right to vote is not a one-shot deal and therefore is inviolable," Gratela said.

But he said that Migrante would not stand in the way of bill's passage. Instead, they would make known their positions to the selected members of the bicameral commission.

He said they would also fight for the right for immigrants since "all holders of Philippine passports" should be allowed to vote.

Let reason prevail

Reason, however, is expected to prevail when a joint conference committee is organized to reconcile the contrasting provisions of the Senate and the House versions.

The Senate version, called Overseas Filipinos Voting Act of 2002 (Senate Bill 2104), contains many of the major provisions sought by overseas Filipino groups.

Among these are the provisions allowing onsite registration, voting and counting of votes. What this means is that voting would be held in the country where registered Filipino voters are located.

SB 2104, sponsored by opposition Senator Edgardo Angara, also provides for registration and voting by mail, and also requires the Commission on Election to tap non-government organizations to help monitor registrations and elections held abroad.

Once the two houses pass their respective versions on third reading, the conference committee would be formed.

Senate majority floor leader Loren Legarda, whose office draws up the chamber's agenda, is confident that the bill will pass third reading during the plenary session today.

Legarda and Angara said they both believed that despite the big difference between the two versions, a reconciled version would be ready before the end of the month.

Legarda listed at least eight significant differences in the two versions of the bill, including the party-list system.

The Senate version provides that all Filipinos abroad who are at least 18 years of age on the day of the election will be allowed to vote, the House version states that Filipinos who have not renounced Philippine citizenship can vote in all national elections.

Representatives Apolinario Lozada Jr. of Negros Oriental and Jesli Lapus of Tarlac told Arab News that the AVB would be passed in the House also today.

No fear

Angara allayed fears that absentee voting would be turned into "an instrument of massive election fraud but instead will be the single, biggest impetus to clean and intelligence election in the country."

"The fears are unfounded, these are tales from the bogeymen," said Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments, revision of codes and laws and election reforms.

Angara said the positive sentiment on the expected impact of the AVB is shared by most senators and congressmen. Only Sen. Joker Arroyo voted against the Senate version.

Angara said there are adequate safeguards to protect the integrity of the absentee votes and they have put in places in all stages of the election process from registration to the canvassing of votes. The Senate version of the bill, he said, has 35 safeguards against election fraud.

Senate President Frank Drilon said an estimated 1-billion-peso budget would be needed in the 2004 General Appropriations Act to finance the absentee voting in the next national elections.

But Drilon noted that preparatory steps that have to be undertaken next year, such as the registration of absentee voters and the setting up of the elections units in Philippine embassies and consulates in key cities abroad that host a substantial number of overseas Filipinos.

Drilon said these tasks would need funding that would be included in the 2003 budget that Congress will scrutinize starting this week.

He said the passage of the bill in the Senate should not be enough reason for OFWs to celebrate. "The Senate has delivered on its promise to approve the absentee voting act. But the hard work is far from over," he said.

"We will not stop until we see the efficient and orderly implementation of the absentee voting act," he added.

Drilon said the passage of the landmark legislation is a fulfillment of the commitment of the Arroyo administration to enfranchise some seven million overseas Filipinos in the coming 2004 presidential election.

Absentee voting for overseas Filipinos is a right enshrined in the 1987 Constitution, which was drafted during the term of ex-President Corazon Aquino.