JEDDAH, 14 September 2003 — Filipinos from Yanbu and Jeddah came out in droves on Friday to register at the Philippine Consulate, enabling the Western Region to break the 10,000 mark in the number of the registrants for May 2004 Philippine absentee voting exercise.
The contingent from Yanbu, numbering more than 50, plus the locals accounted for a single day record of 1,219 registrants in Jeddah. The total in Jeddah as of Sept. 12 reached 10,011.
“We are expecting the ‘record’ to be broken because the number of registrants are picking up. What I would like to remind our kababayans is not to wait for the last day to register,” Taha Guinomla, the consulate’s administrative officer, told Arab News.
He said the average number of daily registrants since August 1 was 200, but the number has dramatically risen to 400 since then.
Registration continues everyday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Sept. 30. For Filipinos in the Western and Southern regions of the Kingdom, registrants have to appear in person at the consulate in Jeddah. For those in the Central Region, registration is done at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh. A satellite center had been set up at the International Philippines School in Alkhobar for Filipinos in the Eastern Region.
Guinomla said OFWs should really break the “ma?ana” habit (procrastination) that Filipinos are notorious for and not wait for the deadline to draw near, otherwise they would have to contend with long lines (pila).
Consulate officials have also urged community leaders in the other parts of the region to emulate the Filipino Community in Yanbu (Filcoyan) and convince others Filipinos to come and register.
The contingent from Yanbu, led by Bong Jimenez, left for Jeddah at 7 p.m. Thursday night on board a bus and three cars, allowing them to have a rest before registering. Travel time between Yanbu and Jeddah about 4 hours.
Raffy David, chairman of Filcoyan, said the group is arranging more trips to Jeddah to enable OFWs in the area to exercise their right and responsibility in electing the next Philippine leaders.
Contrary to what Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos had said, and later retracted, community groups in the Kingdom have been actively involved in informing OFWs of the registration process.
In Yanbu, for example, Filcoyan copied at its own expense, primers of the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) law and distributed them to companies and public places. After the registration began, Filcoyan wrote to companies with big population of Filipino workers, requesting their help in letting them travel to Jeddah to register.
In Jeddah, the group Alyansa went from villa to villa and from sports tournament after another to distribute primers and application forms.
In Riyadh, NGO’s campaigned from company-to-company for OFW’s to register, arranging for transportation in the process. The embassy and consulates helped in the campaign by writing letters to human directors of companies to allow their Filipino employees to register.
During the first day of registration, a group of electrical engineers took some primers and registration forms, copied them and distributed them to their colleagues.
In Al-Khobar, OFWs send text messages to encourage others to register.
Other individuals are helping in their own way. Sportscaster Jojo Ligan, for one, has made it a habit to remind spectators to go out and register.
ABS-CBN-The Filipino Channel has also joined the information campaign by inserting public services announcements into its line-up of programs.
