MANILA, 23 November 2002 — Senate President Franklin Drilon has appealed to senators and congressmen composing the bicameral conference committee of the absentee voting bill (AVB) to be more flexible on where to meet and buckle down to work.
“There are many more issues that can be the subject of a very serious debate,” Drilon said, referring to the two AVB versions passed in the Senate and the House.
The task of the bicameral conference committee is to thresh out the contradictory provisions in both versions, after which reconciled version would have to be ratified during the plenary session of both houses before it is submitted to President Gloria Arroyo to be signed into law.
In the Senate provision, overseas Filipinos — contract workers and migrants who have not yet renounced their Philippine citizenship — would be allowed to vote in Philippine national elections starting in 2004. They will be allowed to vote for the president, vice president, senators and party-list representatives.
But the House version limits voting only to contract workers and only for the president and vice president. Moreover, it allows the voting only in 2004.
Sen. Edgardo Angara, who heads the Senate panel in the bicameral committee, has identified several other differences, all of which have to be reconciled.
Drilon said the people may understand if the legislators cannot come to an agreement over the substantial issues but “they will not forgive us if we have a deadlock because of venue.” He also reminded his fellow legislators that the enabling of the right of overseas Filipinos to vote “is a constitutional mandate” that Congress has to act on.
Noel Esquela, executive director of the absentee voting advocate eLagda group, had quoted opposition Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. as saying some members held a pre-BiCam conference.
The conference meeting was earlier scheduled for Nov. 15 but has been resent several times for various reasons.
