MANILA, 16 January 2003 — A Philippine senator urged legislators crafting the bill that would grant overseas Filipinos (OFs) the right to vote in 2004 to speed up their work reconciling the Senate and House of Representatives versions of the Absentee Voting Bill (AVB).
“We must demonstrate a sense of urgency because we might be giving a wrong signal that we are not interested to have absentee voting implemented in time for the 2004 elections,” Sen. Aquilino Pimentel told the forty odd solons at the AVB bicameral conference committee Tuesday night.
In an interview with Arab News, Pimentel said the atmosphere of the three and a half hour meeting was good. “A lot of ground was covered,” Pimentel said.
He explained that “only three major areas of controversy are left to be resolved,” perhaps at the next meeting scheduled Tuesday next week (Jan. 21).
Rep. Apolinario Lozada Jr. said the three remaining areas of contention involve the scope of absentee voting (who will be elected), the coverage (who can vote) and the so-called “Sunset Provision” limiting the grant of absentee voting rights to the 2004 elections.
Ellene Sana, advocacy officer of the Center for Migrant Advocacies (CMA), said that although they found the pace of the work “slow”, most AVB advocates were glad that the bicameral conference pushed through.
“Up to the last minute, we were not sure whether there would be a bicam or not,” Sana said.
“So far so good, but we’re very worried because the remaining issues are the main ones,” Sana confessed. “For one, we did not know that until now the Sunset Provision was still on the agenda.”
According to Sana, the AVB advocates would consult the OFs on a possible course of action not meant to be antagonistic or hostile towards the members of the bicameral conference “but just to remind them that we are waiting.”
Lozada, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee and head of the House of Representatives contingent to the bicameral conference, added that a small working group had been formed out of the original members of the bicameral committee.
In a telephone interview, Lozada told Arab News this small group would be composed of Senators Pimentel and Loren Legarda, and Representatives Jesli Lapus, Teodoro Locsin Jr., Didagen Dilangalen, and Augusto Syjuco Jr. Pimentel would head the group although Angara is the head of the Senate contingent to the bicameral conference. But Pimentel is leaving next week as the official Senate representative to the International Parliamentary Confab sponsored by the Indian Parliament.
He said “Ed Angara will take over and control the proceedings” when he does leave. Pimentel also said this group would refine the language to be used in the final version of the bill.
