RP poll officials in Iraq collect 4 absentee votes

Reinforcing the message that every vote counts, a four-man Philippine electoral team ventured out of Baghdad at the weekend to collect absentee votes from the country’s 49 troopers based in southern Iraq.

They collected four votes.

The team based in the Philippine embassy in the Iraqi capital visited Camp Charlie in Hilla over the weekend to get the votes of the Philippine contingent ahead of May 10 elections, a foreign affairs official said.

Only four members of the 49 Filipino soldiers and policemen have so far cast their votes because the rest were on duty elsewhere, said Catherine Maceda, vice-chairwoman of the overseas absentee voting office.

Election officials hope to get the votes of the rest of the contingent before May 10, when voters go to the polls across the Philippines.

The Philippines passed an absentee voting law last year.

However, of the 5.3 million expatriate Filipinos, only 368,000 have registered to vote in the May 10 presidential and congressional election, which President Arroyo is tipped to win by a narrow margin.

Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has confirmed that there are around 2,500 Filipinos in Iraq working inside the military camps of the United States.

According to a report from the charge d’affaires of the Philippine embassy in Baghdad, the Filipinos are "very safe" inside the camps.

Foreign Affairs spokeswomaon Julia Heidemann said yesterday that the Filipinos are situated in seven American camps in Baghdad, Mosul, Basra, Balad, Tai, Nasiriyah and Umn Qasr.

The Filipinos are employed as doctors, male nurses, steel workers, plumbers, cooks, bakers, chefs, engineers, electricians, caterers, hairdressers, manicurists, janitors and maintenance workers, among others.

Heidemann pointed out that the Filipinos were hired by contractors based in the neighboring countries of Iraq, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan.

Since no visas are required to enter Iraq, Heidemann said it was easy for the contractors to bring in Filipino workers.

As far as compensation is concerned, the Filipinos are paid an average $350 to $1,000 a month depending on the job.

The figures provided by the DFA cover only the documented Filipino employees in the war-torn country. — AFP, Marvin Sy