Voting rights for 7 M overseas Pinoys in place this June

ROME – The bill seeking voting rights for more than seven million overseas Filipinos, half of them workers, will be enacted before the next adjournment of Congress in June, Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. said here yesterday.

"We will try to approve it late next month. But definitely, the Absentee Voting Bill will be passed before the next break in early June," he told Manila-based reporters who covered the joint Senate-House consultations with Filipino workers here on the measure.

He said overseas Filipinos, especially workers, are overwhelmingly for the Malacañang-certified bill and are eager to exercise the proposed voting rights.

The consultations were held on Thursday by a team co-chaired by Sen. Edgardo Angara and Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco Jr., chairman of the House committee on electoral reforms.

The team flew to Italy from Saudi Arabia, home to about 800,000 OFWs, where similar dialogues were held.

"The response was very hot. It was hot all over. Our workers are excited about the prospect of their participation in national elections starting in 2004," Syjuco said.

He said the emerging consensus among OFWs is for the holding of the registration, voting and counting in Philippine embassies and consulates so they can watch over the entire process.

"They do not want any part of it, particularly the counting of votes, done in Manila because they don’t trust the Commission on Elections," he said.

Syjuco stressed that the proposed voting rights for OFWs would be a "purifying element" in the electoral process since most of these Filipinos "are more disciplined and financially and socially independent."

"They cannot be bought and they will be far from partisan political influences. They will vote for the candidates they believe can best lead our country. I think that they will not only be a swing vote but they will make the difference in an election," he said.

Syjuco said the joint team will finalize the Absentee Voting Bill when Congress resumes session on April 15 and has agreed to recommend its approval as soon as possible so the Comelec can start the necessary preparations.

He sees no hitch in the early enactment of the measure. "The Senate and the House are for it, administration and opposition politicians are for it, President Arroyo is for it," he said.

As for how the election campaign would be conducted abroad, some senators are proposing a ban against personal campaigning.

But Syjuco said he is against it because it would be unfair to those who have not exposed themselves in Filipino communities in other countries and in the media.

"We want to level the playing field, but if we impose a ban against personal campaigning, the more the field will be unleveled," he added.

According to Ambassador Philippe Lhuillier, there are about 220,000 Filipino workers here, 140,000 of whom have no legal employment papers.

After Saudi Arabia, Italy hosts the biggest number of OFWs, he said.

"We are trying to help those without papers to legalize their employment and stay here," he said.

De Venecia is here upon invitation of the Italian Parliament. Yesterday, he and his delegation that includes Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II and Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr., were received by Pope John Paul II.

The Speaker later signed a friendship and cooperation agreement with his Italian counterpart, Fernando Casini.