MANILA, 6 September — Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) lobbying for the enactment of a law allowing overseas Filipinos to vote are questioning the sincerity of lawmakers who promised to pass the absentee voting bill before the end of session yesterday.
The bill was not even calendared for interpellation or amendments both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate.
Session has ended and another one begins at the end of the month.
House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. was particularly indicted by eLagda, which expressed outrage on his leadership’s “continued indifference and inaction on the Absentee Voting Bill.”
“This doesn’t speak well of your sincerity and commitment consistent with your public official pronouncements on this bill,” eLagda Executive Director Noel Esquela said in a message obtained by ArabNews.
He accused de Venecia of colluding with the other congressmen, particularly the members of the House majority in non-action on the bill.
“We no longer believe public statements made to placate or reassure us,” Esquela said, adding “give us back the reason to hang our hopes on your leadership, trusting that you are indeed a man of your word.”
Ellene Sana, advocacy officer of Kapisanan ng mga KamagAnak ng Migranteng Manggaggawang Pilipino (Kakammpi), said after the non-passage of the bill that the members of the International Coalition for Overseas Filipino Voting Rights (ICOFVR) “witnessed the indifference, insensitivity, apathy prevailing in the halls of the plenary session of the House of Representatives on the plight of the overseas Filipinos.”
Sana said she confronted de Venecia on the matter before the session yesterday and was told that bill was not calendared “since the Senate is not interested in it already.”
But Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, a member of the opposition, said that was not true.
“The Speaker was really not sincere in saying the AVB would be passed,” aded Bong Guro, a former OFW based in Jeddah.
Dr. Rachelle Garcia of OFWNet said the latest development has exposed the real enemies of overseas Filipinos.
“We are fighting the silent majority who are actually opposing the bill but are too timid to air their opposition. They just kept quiet. We were training our guns at the wrong people (the opposition),” she said.
Garcia added that “we need to show them” that absentee voting can be done, particularly via Internet voting which was piloted in Riyadh by the group of Jun Aguilar.
Overseas Filipinos, meanwhile, bombarded Senate and House leaders with e-mail and text messages to express their outrage.
In a message meant for President Arroyo, Miguel Bolos of eLAGDA-Riydah said:“I am sad to note, being a fellow Kapampangan, that you just blew your chance to greatness by failing to deliver the passage of the Absentee Voting Bill that you keep reiterating to be one of your administration’s top priority bills.”
Bolos even accused the president that she has “no intention at all” to pass the measure. “You have lost a lot of OFW sympathizers after today. It looks like Lucio Tan is proven correct … in his comment about the lack of good leadership in the Philippines. Today, I start mourning for my country.”
Gani Manalo of OFW Congress-Riyadh, said in his e-mail that while some OFWs may again be fooled, “you cannot fool the OFWs all the time!”
Manalo reminded de Venecia of his promise that he will resign if the bill is not passed by June 2002, which the House did not do but the Senate, through a rump session on June 5, passed though it was later on returned to the floor.
Focusing her ire on President Arroyo, Manalo added: “Sleep in peace Madam President, for we don’t know what tomorrow would bring to our country.”
Ronnie Abetto, also of Elagda-Riyadh, said that he is “very mad” with the developments and dared de Venecia and Drilon to tell overseas Filipinos that their right to vote will not be truly realized.
“It’s better to tell us straight than try to give us the run-around, making us look like fools,” he said.