MANILA, 23 May 2003 — Officials of the Commission on Elections and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will soon be conducting a road show on overseas absentee voting but Saudi Arabia, host to some 900,000 Filipinos, is not in their itinerary.
Teams from the Comelec and DFA will be leaving in the next few weeks for the United States, Europe, and the Middle East to conduct information forums and training sessions for Filipino communities.
According to the schedule of departures obtained by the Inquirer News Service, there will be an information forum on May 27 in San Francisco and another on May 28 in Los Angeles. On May 29 and 30, training sessions will be held in Los Angeles. An information forum in New York will be held on June 2 while another forum will be held in Rome, which will also be the site of regional training sessions on June 6 and 7.
In the Middle East, an information forum will be held on June 13 in Abu Dhabi. Regional training sessions will also be held in Abu Dhabi on June 14 and 15.
No schedule had been made for Saudi Arabia, which has the second biggest overseas Filipino community, next to the United States.
During the Senate overseas hearings on absentee voting, Saudi Arabia was excluded in the itinerary of senators. Riyadh was included only after OFWs in the Kingdom bombarded senators with e-mails urging them to come.
The senators who conducted the hearings, all from the opposition and led by Edgardo Angara and Aquilino Pimentel Jr., said the Kingdom was not in their original list because they were told by DFA officials that public hearings were not allowed.
“Puede naman pala. They (DFA people) should ask the host government first before saying it is not allowed,” one senator told Arab News then.
Alioden Dalaig, a senior staffer of the Comelec, said that Comelec Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr. will go to the US, Commissioner Luzviminda Tancangco, to Europe, and Comelec Mehol Sadain, to Abu Dhabi.
The commissioners will be assisted by Comelec senior staff members and the members of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat.
The regional training sessions for the Asia-Pacific region were held in Manila last April.