Comelec asked anew to extend registration of overseas voters

Presidential adviser on overseas Filipino communities Heherson Alvarez is again asking the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to extend the registration period for overseas Filipino voters until Oct. 7.

Alvarez made this appeal yesterday after Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos rejected his earlier petition seeking to extend overseas voters’ registration by another 30 days to Oct. 30.

The registration period for overseas Filipino voters was set by the Comelec for Aug. 1 to Sept. 30.

"Even as we have intensified our own registration campaign (through) media, we do strongly feel that every conceivable effort must be exerted to maximize the participation of potential voters in next year’s elections," Alvarez said in his appeal-petition filed before the Comelec yesterday.

"Let us leave no stone unturned in truly empowering every qualified Filipino to vote," he added.

According to Alvarez, "even just a seven-day extension of the registration of Filipino voters overseas will be very critical to the government’s campaign to include the voices of our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in choosing the country’s national leaders," during the May 2004 elections.

He said the low turnout of overseas registrants and other unexpected circumstances and difficulties of the registration process have created the need for immediate contingency measures and adjustments.

"Registration, being the most crucial stage of this democratic process, is the key to the exercise of the right of suffrage," he said. "We must then liberally afford all the time and opportunity for our compatriots abroad to register. This is a first-time experience for our country and thus the need for a little more time."

On Monday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople expressed alarm over the low turnout of registrants for absentee voting. He called on the Philippine foreign service posts to intensify their information drive regarding absentee voters’ registration in their respective host countries.

Ople also said he doubted that the Comelec would extend the registration period, because this would entail additional costs and may delay the printing of ballots. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) aims to register at least 1.7 million overseas Filipinos so they can cast their votes in the 2004 elections.

As of Monday, the DFA Absentee Voting Secretariat reported that, since Aug. 1, only 116,520 voters registered at the country’s 81 embassies, three consular offices and three satellite stations worldwide — only 6.8 percent of the target number of overseas voters.

Alvarez urged overseas Filipinos to perform their "patriotic duty" by exercising their right to vote, beginning with registration at the Philippine diplomatic posts in their host countries.

It would be a pity, he said, if Republic Act 9189, the Overseas Absentee Voting act, "would go to waste" because of the indifference of the very people who are supposed to benefit from the law.

The country’s OFWs, Alvarez said, will "eventually have to make the ultimate sacrifice and be part of the changing landscape of the country’s democratic history."

In his original petition, Alvarez said the registration period should be extended because government needed more time to study the implementation of Republic Act 9225, or the Citizenship Retention and Reacquisition Act of 2003, signed by President Arroyo on Aug. 29 and its effects on the absentee voting law.

In meetings with members of Filipino communities abroad, Alvarez said most absentee voter registration centers are located in Philippine embassies and consulates.

These registration centers, he added, are inaccessible or far from the homes and workplaces of OFWs. In order to register, many overseas Filipinos must file leaves of absences from work and risk losing a day’s pay.