MANILA, 4 July 2003 — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday toned down its expectations on the number of overseas Filipinos would vote in the 2004 national elections.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said from an estimate of almost 3 million, they expect only 1.7 million overseas workers and migrant Filipinos to participate because of stringent requirements in the Overseas Absentee Voting Act.

Ople also cited logistics problem. He said that while DFA personnel were ready and have been trained to conduct the registration of overseas Filipinos, starting Aug. 1, there are only 82 posts to service overseas Filipinos in more than a hundred countries.

Signed by President Gloria Arroyo early this year, the absentee voting law allows Filipinos residing abroad to participate in Philippine national elections. That includes the election of the president and vice president, senators and party-list representatives in Congress.

But many overseas Filipino groups have become discouraged from participating when they were told that the law strictly provides that each OFW must have to personal appear at Philippine embassies and consulates to register as absentee voters and later on to cast their vote on election day.

Yesterday, Tony Ranque, an OFW community leader based in Dammam, warned Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. of the impending failure of absentee voting in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. He said the stringent requirement even in the registration portion is a terrible burden on OFWs residing in far-flung places in the Kingdom.

He said that it is very inconvenient, expensive and even impossible for Filipinos in Dammam, Alkhobar and nearby cities and towns to travel the long distance to Riyadh just to register at the embassy.

“I hope it will not be misconstrued as a lack of interest of OFWs to participate in exercises as important as the national election,” Ranque said in an e-mail letter to Pimentel.

“Dammam and the rest of the Eastern Province is 400 kilometers and more from the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh. It is an 8-10 hour travel round trip. Considering this situation, the community leaders here are at a loss how we will be able to convince our fellow OFWs, most especially the low-salaried ones, to go to Riyadh twice just to register and vote,” he wrote.

Ranque and other OFW community leaders in the Kingdom have said the narrow-mindedness in which the Commission on Elections (Comelec) have insisted on personal registration and voting in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) for absentee voting is the problem.

OFWs from all over the world have also bewailed the refusal of Philippine lawmakers to allow for registration and voting by mail. Only those in the United States, Japan and Britain are allowed by the law to vote by mail supposedly because they have a reliable mail system.

Earlier, Pimentel advised the Comelec to review the implenting rules of the law to correct possible flaws, such as on the exclusion of undocumented overseas Filipinos under the law’s coverage.

Pimentel disputed Abalos’ contention that undocumented or illegal Filipinos abroad should not be allowed to register and vote in the 2004 elections.