ALKHOBAR, 14 August 2003 — Filipinos in the Eastern Province may proceed to the International Philippine School in Alkhobar (IPSA) starting tomorrow to register as absentee voters, Labor Attaché Manuel Roldan said yesterday.

Roldan said Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla is expected to personally oversee the first day of registration for the region.

Yesterday, a team led by Vice Consul Romulo Victor Israel and Comelec-deputized official Nelson Pobleo finished installing the 10 data capturing machines for use in the registration.

Roldan said the registration at IPSA will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. during Thursdays and Fridays and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. from Saturdays to Wednesdays until.

Registration under the Philippine Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) law was set on Aug. 1 to Sept. 30. Registered absentee voters would be able to vote in next year’s national election for president, vice president, senators and party-list representatives. Balloting for overseas Filipinos would be held for a month.

Just in time for the start of the registration in Alkhobar, a new labor attaché will arrive from Manila to head the POLO-OWWA office for the Eastern Region Operations.

Roldan told Arab News that former OWWA deputy administrator Delmer Cruz will be taking over the post that he has temporarily assumed.

Roldan will be thereafter assume the post of labor attaché at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, replacing Labor Attaché Jainal Rasul Jr., who has completed his tour of duty.

Meanwhile, Secretary Heherson Alvarez has appealed to OFWs to register so that they can also vote next year.

Alvarez made the appeal following reports of a very low turnout worldwide, which was pegged at slightly over 10,000 by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) last weekend.

Alvarez, who is the presidential adviser on overseas filipino communities, had asked the families of the OFWs in Manila to convince their relatives abroad to register and vote in order not to waste the Republic Act 9189 or the Overseas Absentee Voting Act.

“We call on the kin of Filipinos abroad to please inform your relatives overseas to go out and register in all of our embassies and consular offices abroad before the registration period ends on Sept. 30. Otherwise, their right of suffrage will go to waste,” Alvarez stressed.

Latest Comelec figures reveal that of the 10,000 or so registrants, 6,172 were from Hong Kong-based OFWs; 600 from the United States and Canada; and 616 from those working in other Asian countries.

In Saudi Arabia, unofficial reports gathered from the International Convenor for Filipino Voting Rights (ICOFVR), there were only 893 registrants as of Aug. 9 in both the embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Jeddah. There are an estimated 900,000 OFWs in the Kingdom.

Alvarez admitted that the Comelec may not have enough resources and manpower for a global information drive so that government needs all the help it can get to allow overseas Filipinos to vote for president, vice president, senators and party-list representatives.

Lawmakers who helped push for absentee voting said they are worried that a dismal turnout of OFWs in the absentee voting exercise would only add ammunition to those opposed that most overseas Filipinos don’t care after all about their right of suffrage.

Congress has reserved the right to revoke the law should it turn out to be a useless exercise.