MANILA, 25 October — A bicameral committee will be convened on Nov. 15 to reconcile two vastly different versions of the proposed law allowing Filipinos abroad to vote in their country's national elections.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel told Arab News this body will most likely be chaired by the Senate version’s main sponsor, Sen. Edgardo Angara,.
The bill passed third reading in the Senate with 17 voting for the measure, 1 against and 1 abstention. In the House of Representatives, 132 members voted for it and 9 voted against. There were no abstentions.
There are many differences, however, starting with the title which in the Senate is now the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2002 and in the House of Representatives is simply the Absentee Voting Act of 2002. Because of the desire to finish the process soonest, the original schedule of the bicameral work might even be moved up, Angara said. Angara said that a bicameral conference committee work traditionally fuses the most outstanding provisions of a measure passed by the two chambers and the intent is not to diminish the strength and potency of legislation. “We come to the bicameral conference committee work with the best of intention and this is to craft a good law. The fears that the bicameral conference work will dent the lofty intent of the absentee voting measure are baseless,” said Angara.
But the Senate panel for the bicameral conference has not been drawn up since there is some confusion regarding the inclusion of Sen. Joker Arroyo who voted against the bill.
“The majority tried to nominate Arroyo but I objected to it because he voted against the bill,” Pimentel said, adding, “how can it be justified that somebody who voted against the bill becomes a member of the panel?”
Majority floor leader Sen. Loren Legarda said it had always been a practice to include as members of the bicameral conference only those who voted for the measure.
“However, long before the third reading was done, Sen. Arroyo requested that he be part of the majority panel,” Legarda said. “We will discuss that among ourselves in the majority,” she added.
Arroyo said he was against the AVB because it was a “faceless” process with no means of verifying the identity of the person voting. “The overseas voter’s face will never be seen, from beginning (registration) to end (actual voting),” he said.
The bill, Arroyo said, has good intentions but “is fraught with dangers” being “hastily done.”
Advocates Noel Esquela of eLagda and Ellene Sana of the Kapisanan ng mga KamagAnak ng Migranteng Manggagawang Pilipino (Kakammpi) dismissed as ridiculous Arroyo’s concern. “How can the bill be hastily done when it took 15 years?” they asked in a statement.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives will field 14 members from the majority and 7 from the minority. From the majority party are Rodolfo Albano Jr., Arthur Defensor, Roseller Barinaga Jr., Salacnib Baterina, Edgar Chatto, Del de Guzman, Jesli Lapus, Teodoro Locsin Jr., Jaime Lopez, Apolinario Lozada Jr., Imee Marcos, Antonio Nachura, Loretta Ann Rosales, and Joel Villanueva.
Representing the minority are Ronaldo Zamora, Rolex Suplico, Didagen Dilangalen, Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, Celso Lobregat, Ted Failon, and Gilbert Remulla.
A technical working group is currently being assembled to prepare a table of comparison of the two versions, which Angara maintained are “not irreconcilable.”
Angara is confident that the bill will be signed into law before Congress goes on Christmas break on Dec. 19. “There will be a law by November. The Senate and the House will reconcile the differences,” said Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments, revision of codes and laws and electoral reforms.
The Senate version incorporated many of the suggestions of non-government organizations and overseas Filipinos.
But that has not impressed Makati Rep. Locsin, a newspaper publisher, who has bragged that their version was more intelligently crafted. The House version allows overseas Filipinos to vote only for the president and vice president. It denies them their constitutionally enshrined right to vote for senators and party-list representatives.
