MANILA, 19 October 2005 — The target of getting at least one million overseas Filipinos to vote in the 2007 polls will hopefully be attained with the opening of a registration center at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) building at Ortigas in Mandaluyong City, an official has said.

Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr., officer in charge for Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV), said the new center will facilitate registration for migrant workers since the agency processes the employment papers of about 2,000 OFWs daily.

Tuason said this registration will probably determine the continued existence of the absentee voting law since less than 400,000 out of a total overseas Filipinos of 7.9 million registered for the 2004 elections.

POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz said the agency will make sure that OFWs visiting the building would be made aware of the booth and that they would be encouraged to register.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis, chair of the OAV Secretariat at the Department of Foreign Affairs, said that the new site might encourage more Middle East-based OFWs to register. He said three registration sites have been set up in Saudi Arabia, at the embassy in Riyadh, the consulate in Jeddah, and in Alkhobar (for the Eastern provinces). He also said a field registration will be held in the province of central Saudi Arabia soon.

Tuason added that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is now thinking of setting up a similar OAV registration center at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for Filipinos going abroad.

However, he said this will require more careful study because Filipinos leaving for jobs abroad would already thinking of other things rather than a mundane task like registering for absentee voting.

The official registration period began Oct. 1 and will last until August 31, 2006. Overseas absentee voting was exercised for the first time in May 2004. It was signed into law in February 2003 after more than 8 years of intense lobbying, both by civil society members and overseas Filipinos themselves.

Registration turnout was recorded at a dismal 364,187 for the May 2004 national elections.

Saudi Arabia registered the most number of voters at about 96,000, followed by Hong Kong.