RIYADH, 16 March — Philippine legislators who are in the Kingdom to conduct a public consultation on the proposed Absentee Voting bill said yesterday that the measure would likely be passed in June.
That means overseas Filipinos would be able to vote for the first time outside of the Philippines in the 2004 national elections.
The legislators led by Sen. Edgardo Angara and Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said this as a promise as they acknowledged the zeal and enthusiasm of the Filipino Community in the Kingdom to exercise their right of suffrage .
“After completing the Middle East and Asian legs of our overseas public consultations, we are now fully convinced that not only should an Absentee Voting Law ought to be enacted at once but that it also could be done without fear of fraud,” Angara told reporters after a dialogue attended by some 1,500 Filipinos at the Philippine Embassy grounds here.
He said that as soon as they complete the Europe and Americas leg of their consultations, the Senate and House committees will sit down to redraft the pending bills to incoporate relevant suggestions by OFWs.
When Congress resumes session on April 15, he said, the bills are expected to be reported out by the respective committees for plenary deliberation.
What is also important is that the measure is fully supported by both the opposition members of Congress as well as the majority and Malacanang Palace, said Angara, who chairs the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments Revision of Codes and Laws which has jurisdiction over electoral laws.
Angara and Pimentel, along with Rep. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo (Aurora) and Sens. Panfilo Lacson and Vicente Sotto III took turns answering queries by representatives of the various OFW groups in Riyadh as well as in Jeddah, the Eastern Province, and nearby areas.
Summarizing the result of the dialogue before closing, Pimentel said the measure intends to cover not only OFWs but also immigrants who have not given up their Filipino citizenship.
As clarified during the dialogue, voting for overseas Filipinos and counting of ballots would be held in Philippine embassies or consulates. Voting and registration could be done in person or by mail.
The senators said they were supporting this particular procedure, which is being pushed by OFW groups in the Kingdom, as a way of preventing the commission of cheating.
Sotto said that the consultations have helped resolve the potential problems that have been raised, except for some conflicts that were “peculiar” to the Kingdom.
One of these was request of the community to set registration and election in the Kingdom on a Friday so as to allow for all OFWs to participate. But the senators noted that Philippine elections are usually set on a Monday and a problem could arise.
Lacson also pushed for the incorporation of a provision in the law so that when overseas Filipinos register, or when the immigrants register with the Comelec or the embassies their intent to return to the country, they would not be charged any amount of money.
A hot issue that many participants raised or wanted to raise was how to safeguard the votes of Overseas Filipinos.
“The best guarantor in the implementation of this law are the OFWs themselves,” said Rep. Castillo, pointing out that OFW groups in Riyadh, Hong Kong and Japan were themselves demanding that non-government organizations be allowed to play the role of watchdog similar to the Namfrel.
Pimentel said they will include in the legislation a provision authorizing the Commission on Election to accredit participating NGOs .
Rep. Augusto Syjuco (Iloilo), chair of the House Committee on Suffrage, who arrived from Manila just as the dialogue ended, agreed with the other legislators that the bill would be passed very soon as he assured that the House leadership was also supportive of it.
“What makes me so certain that this measure will soon be enacted into law is the fire, fervor and spirit we have seen in our OFWs,” he said.
Yesterday’s dialogue was also considered by the senators to be the most well-organized of the consultations they have conducted so far.
Observers credited this to the effective coordination between the various OFW groups organized under the International Coalition on Overseas Filipinos Voting Rightsa - KSA Chapter and the Philippine Embassy staff led by Ambassador Rafael Seguis.
The Jeddah group was represented by Kasapi while the Eastern Province was represented by the Alkhobar-based OFW Congress.
What made the Kingdom’s dialogue more meaningful, Pimentel noted, was the participation of the youth sector composed of students from the various Philippine schools in Riyadh.
Before the dialogue that started at 2 p.m., the lawmakers attended the launching of the Kilusang Para Sa Bayan Movement, which made suggestions on how the OFWs could contribute more to the country with the help of the government.
After that, the lawmakers were treated to a martial arts presentation by the Mother Movement, as a reminder to the senators to act on a bill that seeks to institutionalize the teaching of self-defense to Filipino female school children and women.
The lawmakers will leave today for Rome in Italy, where the biggest concentration of OFWs in Europe is, and then to New York and Los Angeles.
