The Comelec’s budget this year does not include funding for the absentee voting, Pimentel said. He suggested that Congress trim the budgets of some departments and government agencies to raise the money.
The Comelec earlier told lawmakers that it would need at least P1 billion to implement the absentee voting bill, which was finalized last week.
The bill is expected to be approved by Congress today. "Hopefully, both the Senate and the House of Representatives will ratify the bill. It will then be sent to the President, who is expected to sign it into law within 24 hours," Pimentel said.
Sen. Edgardo Angara, who along with Pimentel pushed for the passage of the absentee voting bill, said about half of the estimated seven million Filipinos working overseas are expected to vote in next year’s general elections.
Under the bill, voting may be done either personally or through mail initially in countries that host large numbers of Filipino workers such as Canada, Japan and Britain.
Permanent residents who intend to come back to the Philippines within a three-year period would also be allowed to vote. They would be required to submit an affidavit stating such an intention to the Philippine embassy.
Pimentel disputed the claim of some lawmakers that allowing Filipinos with immigrant status abroad to vote in elections here would be unconstitutional.
The constitutional provision requiring voters to fulfill a one-year residency in the Philippines before voting in national elections applies only to Filipinos who are in the country, he said.
Excluding immigrants or permanent residents in other countries from voting would defeat the intent of absentee voting – mandated by the Constitution – to enable Filipinos abroad to exercise their right of suffrage.
"Moreover, Congress was tasked by the Constitution to enact the absentee voting law and to prescribe the qualification for overseas voters," he said.
"It would be ridiculous to argue that the Constitution empowers Congress to make the absentee voting law for overseas Filipinos but it cannot provide special qualifications for them."
He added that the residency requirement to qualify for voting cannot be imposed on voters outside the country. "Otherwise, we would make absentee voters local voters."
What was unconstitutional, he said, was to exclude an estimated 2.7 million immigrants and permanent residents abroad – including green card holders in the United States – from voting even though they have not lost their Filipino citizenship.
"They will look like wandering Jews or stateless persons. They are not citizens of the countries where they are based and, therefore, cannot vote there. But neither can they vote for government officials of their homeland."
To address this, he said Congress imposed a condition requiring immigrants or permanent residents to return to the Philippines not more than three years after registering for the 2004 elections.
Immigrants or permanent residents will have to submit an affidavit stating they will reside in the Philippines but this need not be done before the 2004 polls.
"They can already vote in 2004. And afterwards, within three years, they can execute the affidavit that they are returning to the country," Pimentel said.
Initially, a bicameral panel of legislators agreed to exclude immigrants and permanent residents from voting but Pimentel opposed it.