MANILA, 18 November 2005 — An election official yesterday urged overseas Filipino organizations to help campaign for more absentee voting registrants to prevent the electoral exercise from being scrapped.
Election Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr., who heads the Overseas Absentee Voting Committee of the Commission on Election (Comelec), said that opponents of the OAV law in Congress could be encouraged to push for a repeal of the OAV law if the seeming lack of enthusiasm by Filipinos abroad continues.
Tuason noted that as of Nov. 15, only 2,525 individuals have signed up in Philippine embassies and consulates worldwide since the new registration for overseas voters for began early last month.
There should be at least a million overseas Filipinos registered for the 2007 national elections to justify the need to continue with the exercise, he said in an interview with Arab News.
Tuason said it was particularly disheartening that in Saudi Arabia, the topnotcher in both registration and voting for the 2004 elections, only 152 have signed up since October.
Of the total, 84 registered at the embassy in Riyadh and 68 at the consulate in Jeddah.
“We have to prove to them (members of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on overseas absentee voting) that enacting the bill was worth it,” Tuason said.
He said the low registration for the 2004 polls could be attributed to birth pains and could thus be passed off as inconsequential.
But the lawmakers may not accept another poor performance in the 2007 elections, he said.
There are an estimated 5 million Filipinos abroad who are potential voters but only about 380,000 voted in last year’s election when the OAV law was first carried out.
Some OFW leaders said lack of enthusiasm on the part of OFWs and lack of information dissemination were to blame for the preliminary low registration turnout.
“The embassy officials do not even ask the community leaders and overseas absentee voting advocates to help disseminate info,” said Alex Bello, president of the OFW Congress in Riyadh and co-convenor of the International Coalition for Overseas Filipino Voting Rights (ICOFVR) that fought for the enactment of the OAV law, said in an e-mail.
He said it is not enough to issue a press release that the embassy is doing something. “I think they have initiate a meeting with all OAV advocates and community leaders. Unfortunately, they always say this just means additional work for them,” Bello said.
Dubai-based OFW Januar Aguja said the registration process was made more difficult mostly by uninformed embassy personnel.
“To be honest, it was easier to get a credit card than to register and vote,” he said.
“In 2003, the carabao went to the river... but water was dry. Now, let the river go to the carabao...maybe,” Aguja added.
Daphne Ceniza-Kuok, a community leader in Hong Kong, attributed the dismal registration figure from the former Crown colony to the ningas cogon (brush fire) mentality of many Filipinos.
Ningas cogon is a Filipino term for those brimming with enthusiasm at the start of an activity, only to suddenly drop out. It’s like the dry cogon grass which gives out a big fire when lit, but easily dies out.
Tuason said, however, that there’s still enough time to get the registration campaign going full-blast. The registration period will last until Aug. 31, 2006.
He urged community groups to rally once again and help the Philippine missions abroad in making the registration exercise a big success.
With community support, he said, there’s no reason why the records of the past could not be tripled or quadrupled.
In the 2004 election, Saudi Arabia’s total for the registration centers in Riyadh, Alkhobar and Jeddah reached 97,134.
Hong Kong and other consular posts in China totaled 90,847, with 90,233 coming from Hong Kong proper. The other countries in the top 10 were Singapore (24,009), Italy (20,115), the United Arab Emirates (17,907), Kuwait (15,030), Taiwan (11,620), Brunei (9,697), Japan (8,403), and Northern Marianas (6,658). Registration in the other countries reached 48,609.
The turnout of registrants in the United States, Canada and Australia were dismal but that was because the rules for migrants were complicated.
The problems are expected to be resolved with the implementation of a new law allowing Filipino migrants to regain their Philippine citizenship, thus also allowing them to vote in Philippine elections.
