DAMMAM, 5 April 2003 — Filipino community leaders in the Eastern Region are seeking help from ex-Sen. Heherson Alvarez to get a registration and voting place for them in Dammam or Alkhobar.
They aired the appeal yesterday in time for the coming of Alvarez, who arrived in Riyadh last night at the start of a weeklong visit to the Middle East.
Alvarez is the adviser of President Gloria Arroyo on overseas communities.
He is to meet with representatives of various OFW groups in Riyadh today.
Eastern Province community leaders warned that unless they have their own voting centers in the region, thousands of OFWs would be disenfranchised come election time.
A draft of the implementing rules of the Absentee Voting Act being prepared in Manila provided for only two voting centers in Saudi Arabia, the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh and the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah.
Vice Consul Adrian Cruz told the OFW leaders during a meeting last Monday that Filipinos here may only register and vote in Riyadh as what has been proposed by the drafting committee.
According to the community leaders, it would be impossible for those in the far-flung areas like Al-Khafji to exercise their right to vote if they would be made to travel to Riyadh.
Traveling to Riyadh just to register and vote will take them about four to eight hours by road one way.
The news saddened OFWs in this area who also played a key role in the signature campaign for absentee voting.
“This is simply unacceptable. We have not waited and worked too hard for this law just to lose our right due to this grievous mistake in the drafting of the rules. It must be carefully studied and remedied with the best interest of the whole OFW community in Saudi Arabia,” the OFWs said in a petition letter.
