MANILA, 27 July 2003 — The activation of mobile consulates for registration purposes has been approved by the Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec), a leading absentee voting advocate reported yesterday.
Ellene Sana of the Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA) said she learned from Comelec Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr. that the Comelec had also approved a set of guidelines for that purpose.
“These guidelines have been relayed to the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) secretariat at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to be relayed to the different posts,” Sana told Arab News.
“This is good news in particular to those who have been requesting for additional and/or mobile registration facilities outside the embassy/consulate premises, such as in Saudi Arabia, Japan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).”
Sana also emphasized that the mobile registration centers do not have to be in place for the entire registration period (Aug. 1 to Sept. 30) but will only work on a schedule. However, registration of absentee voters will still continue on all 61-days at the embassy and consulates.
The Comelec has specified that the mobile registration centers/facilities must be recognized by the host country as an extension of the embassy/consulate.
Regarding budget, the Comelec stipulated that the setting up of these mobile/field registration centers should not cost the Comelec anything and no additional data capturing machines will be sent to the embassies or consulates for use in these mobile registration centers.
“More or less, the bulk of the decision now is with the concerned embassy/consulate. They will again have to file a request with the Committee on OAV at Comelec for final approval which will come from Tuason,” Sana said.
