With just six days before the registration for overseas absentee voting (OAV) comes to a close, former President Fidel Ramos led government and advocacy groups in appealing to Filipinos abroad to have their voices heard in the 2010 elections.
Ramos, who was on a recent visit to Thailand, said overseas Filipinos should take the 2010 elections as an opportunity to push for their concerns.
“President Ramos was asked for advice on some of the problems affecting Filipino workers, particularly teachers, in Thailand. He encouraged the community to be a ‘factor’ in the upcoming national elections by registering for overseas absentee voting,” the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a statement.
After Ramos stressed the importance of the ballot before the Filipino community at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand, a total of 47 participants immediately registered to vote, the DFA added.
Ambassador Nestor Padalhin of the DFA OAV Secretariat on Tuesday also urged Filipinos to around the world to register while there is still time.
“Go out, register and avail of the OAV registration period,” Padalhin told GMANews.TV. The Philippines has 97 posts worldwide where registration are being held until August 31.
With an estimated voting population of at least 6 million worldwide, overseas Filipinos could provide a “swing vote” if only they would all register and vote in Philippine elections.
Under the Overseas Absentee Voting law, overseas voters can vote for the president, vice president, senators and party-list representatives.
Mañana habit
As of Tuesday, however, 196,344 Filipinos have registered to vote for the 2010 Philippine national elections since the OAV registration opened last February. The figure is way below the 300,000 who registered in just three months for the 2004 elections.
Despite this, Padalhin was still optimistic that more Filipinos, particularly in the Middle East, where some two million Filipinos work and settle, would register. In recent weeks, the DFA secretariat noticed that the daily registrants have averaged 2,000, which is a good sign in bolstering the current figures.
“Filipinos still haven’t gotten over their mañana habit (procrastination). In the coming days I’m sure more of them would register,” he said.
Susan Ople of the Blas F. Ople Center, an OFW advocacy group, echoed Padalhin’s concern and urged Filipinos to mobilize and register before the deadline.
According to Ople, overseas Filipinos could prove to be the powerful swing vote in the upcoming elections.
“In a very tight race, OFWs could decide the outcome of the elections,” she said.
Ople is optimistic that a little over 600,000 overseas Filipinos would participate in next year’s elections. The 600,000 figure comes from the remaining 500,000 eligible voters from the 2004 and 2007 records, as well as the more than 190,000 that registered as of Tuesday.
“I’m an optimist. I’m sure they would think of choosing the next pro-OFW president,” she added.
Padalhin had earlier hoped for a million overseas Filipino voters for the 2010 Philippine presidential elections as the government projected.
“It’s impossible to reach that goal at this point,” Padalhin said.
To reach the millionth-mark, the government’s 97 posts worldwide needed to attract at least 167,000 new voters every month. But since the registration began in February, the number of OAV registrants has not even reached 100,000 until June.
Little consolation
On the brighter side, Padalhin said the current number of OAV registrants has surpassed the 2005-2006 registration period for the 2007 mid-term elections, where only 142,667 registered to vote.
According to Padalhin, the DFA has done everything, from talking to Filipino community leaders to aggressively promoting the registration in media to increase the OAV figures, but new overseas voters seem elusive.
“It is likely that most Filipinos overseas have already registered to vote since 2003,” Padalhin said.
New deadline
The decline in the number of overseas voters has caught the attention of several lawmakers who sought amendments to the current OAV guidelines to make it more OFW-friendly.
Bayan Muna Partylist Rep. Satur Ocampo filed a bill in Congress seeking to move the Aug. 31 deadline to December, while Senators Manuel Villar and Aquilino Pimentel Jr. wanted to make registration centers more accessible to Filipinos in remote areas abroad.
The Comelec had said no to the proposals, saying that the extension would shorten their time to prepare for an automated election.
Migrante International, an alliance of OFW groups, said they would lobby for the OAV registration deadline’s extension, especially in the Middle East.
John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-ME regional coordinator said they were aggressively campaigning to push the deadline till December to keep overseas Filipinos in the oil-rich region from being disenfranchised in the upcoming national elections.
“We are hoping that with the granting of the OAV extension until 31 December 2009, we could gather all in all 300,000 OAV registrants benchmarking the OAV registrants last 2003 registration or even higher,” he said.
Apathy
But even Pimentel noted the “prevailing apathy” among Filipinos toward Philippine elections.
“I had the opportunity to talk with a good number of overseas Filipinos. The response to registration for absentee voting for the purpose of computerized elections was very depressing,” the minority leader said.
Aside from fears of jeopardizing their dual citizenship status, Pimentel said many Filipinos are doubtful whether their votes will be counted following the “Hello Garci” controversy in 2004.
“I had to tell them that their votes can actually make a difference. If only a significant proportion of overseas Filipinos will exercise their voting right, they can be a swing vote in the presidential, vice presidential and senatorial elections,” he said.
With over eight million of them scattered throughout the globe, overseas Filipinos could help decide the result of national elections. But after the dismal turnout of registrants, Pimentel is worried that the OAV will be nothing more but an expensive exercise.
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