MANILA, Philippines - The Senate yesterday ratified the bicameral conference committee report on the bill amending the Overseas Absentee Voting Act that would allow most Filipino immigrants to participate in the electoral process.
Senate committee on electoral reforms chairman Aquilino Pimentel III, the sponsor of Senate Bill 3312, said the requirement on Filipino immigrants abroad to execute an affidavit stating they will return to the Philippines in three years’ time before they are allowed to vote in absentia has been removed.
He said the requirement was “a serious obstacle to our citizens’ right to vote.â€
“That affidavit, which is a legal government document, shall not only be binding on the potential registrant but also on the future of their families as well,†Pimentel said.
He said Filipinos who have reacquired and/or retained their Philippine citizenship under Republic Act 9225 or the Citizenship Retention and Reacquisition Act of 2003 would now be allowed to vote in Philippine elections once the proposed measure is enacted into law.
From 589,830 registrants in 2010, where only 153,323 or 25 percent actually voted, Pimentel said there are now 915,000 overseas absentee voting applicants.
He said this is expected to go up further once the bill is signed into law.
A Resident Election Registration Board (RERB) would be created under the bill, composed of a career official of the Department of Foreign Affairs as chairman; the most senior officer from the Department of Labor and Employment or any government agency maintaining offices abroad; and a registered overseas voter of known probity as members.
The RERB would be tasked to post the names of the applicants of OAV registration in the diplomatic posts and their websites and inform the political parties of the pending applications regularly.
The board would in effect screen all the applications and decide on each case instead of having the Commission on Elections do all the work.