MANILA, 12 September — Some 15,000 signatures and 200 letters sent by Filipinos in Saudi Arabia to their local congressmen have been presented to legislators championing the passage of the absentee voting bill (AVB) in the House of Representatives.
The signatures were gathered by the International Coalition for Overseas Filipino Voting Rights (ICOFVR) before and during the public hearings held by a joint committee of the Philippine Congress in Riyadh last March.
Absentee voting advocates were hoping the signature campaign would awaken members of Congress who have been blocking passage of the bill, which would enable overseas Filipinos to exercise their right to vote in Philippine elections while abroad.
That right is enshrined in the Philippine Constitution but it needs an enabling law.
For the past 15 years since the constitution took effect, however, Congress has repeatedly given OFWs the runaround.
Just when opposition senators have agreed to support the measure, President Gloria Arroyo and her cohorts in Congress began sitting on it.
Just recently, Sectoral Representative Loretta Ann Rosales and Rep. Apolinario Lozada Jr. of Negros Oriental articulated the disgust of several civil society groups over the non-passage of the bill in the lower house of Congress.
Rosales said this seemed close to impossible because the 19 different versions of the bill were authored by 42 different congressmen, plus the bill’s interpellation was being handled by three major committees in the chamber with a membership of 80 congressmen.
“How many of these congressmen are really being heard,” Rosales said during a press conference held by the Philippine Migrants Rights Watch (PMRW) and the International Coalition for Overseas Filipino Voting Rights (ICOFVR).
She questioned why the bill, which has been certified by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is not even being discussed.
On the other hand, she said, the Transco bill being pushed by Malacañang was approved in one marathon session a few days before the last session ended.
“When the leadership of the House decides to crack the party whip, they can pass the bill,” Rosales noted.
Rosales said that when she asked President Arroyo about the bill, she said “the challenge is yours in the House.”
Lozada said the apparent reason many of his colleagues were rejecting the bill was because it would do away with political dynasties prevalent in local politics.
He said people would get elected based on their track records and not for their family names.
“They see that once this bill is passed, it can correct some of our political deficiencies,” Lozada said, explaining “they will no longer elect the grandfather, the wife, the parents, the relatives, etc.”
The PMRW, a 10-member coalition of civil society groups working for the protection of the rights of Overseas Filipino Workers, said “we have now reached a point in our advocacy where massive migrant civil action is necessary.”
“Legislators should think twice before setting aside, or perhaps shunning, the migrants’ right to vote,” the PMRW said in a statement.
Even the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People under the umbrella organization of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP/ECMI) is beginning to speak out against the solons deemed responsible for inaction on the AVB.
“If needed, you can refrain from sending home your remittances,” CBCP/ECMI said in a statement read by Bishop Ramon Arguelles.
“They (the legislators) do not care for you nor your families you sadly leave behind. They are just after your dollars.”
