HOFUF, 27 August 2006 — Come election 2007, some 233 Filipino workers in the eastern city of Hofuf would be able to exercise their right of suffrage and help select the Philippines’ next senators and party-list representative, thanks to the Philippine Embassy’s outreach registration campaign.
The number of registrants in Hofuf is the second largest so far in an out-of-town registration held by the embassy in the Eastern Province.
Jubail holds the distinction of having the biggest number. During the registration in that city last April, 748 Filipinos signed up, outperforming those in the bigger cities of Alkhobar, Riyadh and Jeddah in a given weekend.
Vice Consul Gerry Abiog, head of the embassy’s Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) registration effort, said the turnout of registrants in the central and eastern regions has been very low.
Since the registration began in August 2005, he said, only about 2,500 signed up, far from over 70,000 in the two regions in 2003.
Registration in the Western Region, of which the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah is responsible, is also said to be low. No figures were immediately available.
“We are still hoping that more OFWs will come out and register,” said Abiog, who urged those who have not yet signed up to do so before the Sept. 30 deadline.
The low turnout despite the continuing information campaign being conducted by the embassy and consulate, community groups, and media, has baffled many.
Roilo Alojado, overall chairman of the All Filipino Community and Sports Commission (Afcscom) in the Eastern Province, suggested that OFWs may have lost interest in voting “because they seem to feel that the election results can be rigged in the Philippines.”
“Congress must resolve first the impeachment issues against President Arroyo,” he said in an interview before Arroyo’s allies in the House of Representatives defeated a fresh attempt to impeach her.
Alojado urged those who have not yet registered not to forfeit their right of suffrage, saying that participating in elections is not just a right but a duty.
“We are calling on all our compatriots to register and vote. Let us show that we, the OFWs in Saudi Arabia, are a voice to reckon with,” he said, noting that the Kingdom has the second biggest Filipino population after the United States.
Florante Catanus, president of the Saudi Arabia Hiligaynon Inc. (SAHI), urged the embassy to continue reaching out to other far-flung places, noting that OFWs in those areas do not have enough time to travel to Alkhobar or Riyadh just to register.
Most of the registrants in Hofuf were nurses from the different hospitals in the district of Al-Hassa.
“We are very lucky. We will not be able to register and vote for next year if the Embassy did not visited us. We hope they will come often to our place,” Priscilla Paquil, a nurse in Hofuf, said.
SAHI, which initiated the outreach program in Hofuf, is also planning to invite the embassy officials to Khafji and Ras Tanura. The SAHI outreach project in Hofuf was supported by Afcscom member organizations, which came all the way from Alkhobar, Dammam, Jubail and Ras Tanura.
