MANILA, 15 April 2003 — Budgetary constraints may compel government to do a limited implementation of Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) in next year’s elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.

In a public forum, Comelec Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr., head of the Comelec’s OAV Committee, said that because of a lack of funds they might be limited to a pilot implementation of absentee voting law.

Registration will be cut to only 1 month from the original three-month period planned. Tuason said this is assuming that the 400 million-peso budget for registration would immediately be released upon the signing of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) on April 23.

“Actually it’s a blessing in disguise because this is a very new system and if there are flaws, we can correct them for the next elections. It will be best if it (overseas absentee voting) will be on a pilot basis first,” Tuason said. “We will just have to reckon with the overseas Filipino groups who will complain because of the limited implementation.”

Rep. Apolinario Lozada Jr., head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said this would be a last resort, which was why he filed for a 400 million peso supplementary budgetary allocation for OAV.

He said Comelec Commissioner Benjamin Abalos had earlier assured him that this would be enough and Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin promised that funds would be found for the exercise.

She even promised Abalos that once the GAA for 2003 was signed on April 23, the 400 million pesos set aside for OAV would be handed over to the Comelec and to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in cash. Lozada also said that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo suggested it would be easier for her to look at the 2003 GAA and realign some activities in order to fund OAV but, “I am making sure so I am not withdrawing my supplementary budgetary allocation.”

Still, Lozada said the limited scope might happen. “Even if we want to reach everyone, it will just not be possible, especially in countries like Saudi Arabia. It’s just not feasible. We will try to go as far as we can reach,” Lozada said.

While the Comelec has not chosen the countries for the possible limited implementation, Tuason said they also have to contend with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in some host countries and repercussions of the US led war against Iraq.

“We cannot conduct regional training in Hong Kong because there is an epidemic there,” he said. “In Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East, there are some problems because of the repercussions of the Iraq war even though it is over, the situation has not normalized.”

Tuason added: “We were supposed to conduct an intensive information campaign. Since we do not have the money yet, the Comelec had to cancel this.”