MANILA, 9 August 2003 — Worried that few overseas Filipinos would participate in the 2004 Philippine national elections, officials in Manila are looking into the possibility of tapping celebrities to promote the electoral exercise.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople has said he is discussing the revival of the Hatid Saya program with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to bring movie and television stars to places where migrant Filipino workers are concentrated.
“Perhaps bringing stars like Sharon Cuneta, Nora Aunor and Gary Valenciano to the registration sites would encourage more overseas Filipinos to register,” he said.
In a press conference on Thursday, Ople expressed dismay over the low number of overseas Filipinos who have showed up in Philippine embassies and consulates abroad since the registration period opened on Aug. 1. As of 3 p.m. yesterday, of the 1.7 million overseas Filipinos who are expected to sign up for the 2004 elections, only 10,598 were reported to have registered.
“Maybe we should bring entertainment and concert artists in these (registration) venues,” Ople said. He added that “some posts have not reported any registration whatsoever.”
There were even suggestions to include in the campaign Amay Bisaya, April Boy Regino, and even former maid-turned-singer Sarah Balabagan.
Acting head of the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) Secretariat Catherine Maceda attributed these field registration sites and mobile registration booths as much to the embassies concerned as to the Filipino community there.
She noted that Hong Kong accounts for more than half of the overseas Filipinos who have already registered. As of Thursday, Hong Kong posted the highest-number of registrants with more than 6,000.
Representations by non-government organizations in Hong Kong with the consulate earlier resulted in extension registration sites in being set up in nearby Macau and at hotel in Hong Kong which the host government has recognized.
Hong Kong based Daphne Ceniza-Kuok of the International Coalition for Overseas Filipino Voting Rights (ICOFVR) said that the former British colony’s first registrant signed in at 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 1.
“I think that the machines were not fully utilized as there was a bottleneck in the verification area and we realized we should assign more volunteers to go through and assist registrants in filling up the forms as we had more walk ins than those who set appointments to register,” she said.
