Nene seeks to plug loopholes in absentee voting law

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. railed yesterday against the weakness of the Absentee Voting Law in encouraging overseas Filipinos to vote in national elections.

Speaking during the consultation seminar-workshop on the Overseas Absentee Voting Act at the Senate, Pimentel said records at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) showed that only 223,512 of the five million registered Filipino voters abroad had cast their ballot in the May 10 elections.

"The number of overseas voters included 1,634 in the United States out of a possible 1.5 million; 23,111 in Europe out of a possible 500,000; 1,007 in Africa; 91,478 in the Middle East out of a possible 1.5 million and 105,154 in Asia," he said.

"If the overseas Filipinos did not respond enthusiastically to the Absentee Voting Act, the fault probably lies in the law itself or the way the law was implemented."

However, Pimentel said the law need not be repealed but instead "corrected" to make it responsive to the actual situation of overseas Filipino voters.

"The lukewarm response of our overseas Filipinos (to) the Absentee Voting Act could be seen as part of growing pains," he said.

"We have just begun and we should, therefore, double or triple our efforts to get them to vote in the coming years."

Pimentel said unless an appropriate and speedy remedy is found, the voices of those calling for the repeal of the Overseas Absentee Voters Act might prevail.

"But if we overcome the obstacles that like in the way towards making it possible for overseas Filipinos to fully participate in the forthcoming elections, I guess we can look to having at least four to five million overseas Filipinos voting in the next nine years," he said.

Pimentel said in requiring Filipinos to register and vote at the Philippine embassy or consulate nearest their homes, the law failed to take into consideration that many Filipinos are not concentrated near the capital but scattered all over the country where they live.

"There they have to drive several miles or fly over long distances just to get to the embassy or consulate," he said. "It is not as if they had to register and vote in the barangay where they reside as they do here at home.

"Here at home, by and large, they can literally walk to the place where they are registered voters and later to the voting center in (their) own barangay."

Pimentel said overseas Filipinos should be allowed to vote by e-mail or other similar means with safeguards similar to those that allow contracts to be entered into through electronic communications.

"Unfortunately, this proposal did not muster enough support in Congress to get it passed," he said.

Pimentel said Filipinos permanently residing in the US and other countries were also discouraged by a requirement in the law that they should re-establish residence in the Philippines within three years from their registration as absentee voters.

"Otherwise, why did the Constitution require Congress to pass legislation that would cover overseas voters?" he asked.

"Put in another way, there would hardly be any distinction between the residency requirements for domestic voters and overseas voters if the requirement on residence were interpreted to mean the actual, physical presence of the overseas Filipinos in the country for at least one year preceding the election before they could be accorded the right to vote."

Pimentel said when the residency provision was discussed at the bicameral conference, he articulated the view that it was going to cause difficulties in getting overseas Filipinos to register and vote.

The one-year residency requirement for Philippine-based voters before election day should not have been applied to overseas voters, he added.

The workshop was attended by representatives of major organizations of overseas Filipino workers, the Commission on Elections, and the DFA. — Jose Rodel Clapano