ALKHOBAR, 22 June 2003 — A campaign for participation in the first-ever Philippine overseas absentee voting exercise has lost steam among Filipinos in the Eastern Province because of restrictions in the law.

Community leaders here warned of minimal participation after representatives of the Philippine Commission on Election (Comelec) explained that the law allows for registration and casting of ballots to be done only in person at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Jeddah.

During a dialogue with community leaders in Alkhobar on Wednesday, Comelec executive director Mamasapunod Aguam and executive assistant Luckier Adil encouraged maximum participation, now that Congress had enacted the long-awaited legislation enabling overseas Filipinos to exercise their right of suffrage.

“I am hoping a 100-percent participation from you,” Adil said.

Words of encouragement, however, seemed not to matter any more.

“If we cannot vote here what can you offer to us to exercise our right of suffrage?” Tony Ranque of the International Convenor on Filipino Voting Rights (ICOFVR) in Alkhobar asked.

He lamented that traveling to Riyadh, which is 400 kilometers away from Alkhobar, will cost the voters much time and money just to register.

Some of the leaders who campaigned for the passage of the law left in the middle of the dialogue after knowing that no registration nor election will be held in the Eastern Region.

Many of them dismissed the absentee voting measure as a waste of money, saying it will not represent the true voice of the OFWs in the Kingdom.

Joe Avance?a, chairman of the OFW Congress — Eastern Province, asked whether the Comelec and the Philippine Embassy made substantial effort to ensure that registration and voting could be held in Alkhobar.

Vice Consul Adrian Elmer Cruz said they did but the Saudi government has rejected their request that the exercise be done outside the embassy and consulate.

Absentee voting advocates all over the world say the problem boils down to the paranoid refusal of Philippine legislators to allow voting by mail, a scheme that had been adopted by countries that have their own overseas voting laws.

Under the Overseas Absentee Voting Act signed into law by President Gloria Arroyo early this year, registration and voting by mail would be allowed only in the United States, Britain and Japan, the only countries that were deemed to have a well-developed mailing system that could prevent the commission of fraud.

The list of countries where voting by mail would be allowed may be expanded only upon review and approval of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee.

This has led Alfredo Ganapin, an ICOVR leader in Riyadh to “wonder how our legislators decided that there should only be three countries for now and that Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and others did not satisfy the three conditions listed” under the law.

“That decision seems arbitrary, isn’t it?,” he said in a mail posted in various Internet forums.

Daphne Ceniza, another absentee voting campaigner, wondered whether OFWs have made a strong enough representation when the implementing rules of the OAV were being made in Manila.

Ganapin said the members of the joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives have been made aware of the sentiments of OFWs since a number of senators and congressmen conducted public hearings on the absentee voting measure early last year.

“It may not be difficult to accept that the persistent fear of fraud and election irregularities — and, yes, the threat of corrupt politicians and their supporters — have been reasons for the crafting of a less liberal law. Ah, how I wish there are no such things to stifle progress!” he added.

Still, Ganapin said OFWs should “make the best” out of what is allowed by the OAV law.

“This is the big challenge for all of us now, and not only the Comelec, embassies, consulates and candidates: to elevate the image of elections and instill in the hearts of fellow Filipinos that each vote that is cast for the rightful, just and honorable candidate is one vote for the future of our Motherland. And to be really true to our words. Maybe we’ll have a miracle,” he said.