Comelec urged to extend registration for overseas voters

After the Supreme Court granted the petition to extend voter registration within the country, a group of concerned overseas Filipinos on Monday likewise sought the extension of voter’s listup abroad. “What’s good for Filipinos in the Philippines should be good for Filipinos everywhere," said Leila Nicolas Luis, chairman emeritus of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations. Luis represents the petitioner, overseas Filipino Maritess Salientess Bloom of Massachusetts. Registration for overseas voters was conducted in 2009, from February 1 to August 31. On the other hand, listup for voters within the Philippines ran from December 2008 to October 31, 2009. It was later on extended to December 21, 22, 23, 28, and 29. But just as the poll body granted Filipinos in the country the additional chance to register on these dates, Luis said the Comelec should likewise grant our overseas compatriots 28 more days of registration, ending on February 14 or 15. “Give it to us as a Valentine’s gift, for all (we) do," she told reporters in an interview. She added that the poll body must take note of the contribution of Filipinos abroad to the economy. “I am hoping (that they will grant the petition) because Filipinos overseas sent $15 billion just last year," she said. According to the Central Bank, Filipinos abroad sent home a total of $16.43 billion in 2008 alone. Luis said she was aware that they had somehow filed their petition a little too late because of “failure of communication" but added that she is still optimistic that the Comelec would grant their request for registration extension. “I know that in the end the Comelec members are Filipinos at heart, they have the good of the country (at heart), they know how much help we are doing as overseas Filipinos," she said. But Comelec Commissioner Armando Velasco, who heads the poll body’s committee on overseas absentee voting, said that the Comelec en banc still has to discuss the matter thoroughly before making any decision. “I will be forwarding (this request) to the Comelec en banc for consultation on Monday, we will try to determine whether there (will be) a hearing or just decide based on the petition," he told reporters in a separate interview. If the poll body denies their petition, Luis said they plan to take the matter up to the Supreme Court just as the Kabataan party-list had done. “I think we have a very legitimate request," Luis said, adding that the issue is about “the fundamental right of a citizen, the right to vote." Velasco said if the motion is granted, they would definitely have a hard time making adjustments because they had already finalized the list of overseas voters and are in the process of preparing the packages of the ballots. “Baka mahirapan kami na mag-implement (We might have a hard time implementing this)," he said. But if the petition is granted, Velasco said they would just create a supplemental list of names just like what Comelec plans to do in the case of the latest registrants within the country. Overseas voting is traditionally done manually. Registered Filipinos abroad are given ballots by the Philippine post onsite. The voters in turn send back the ballot in a sealed envelope. The Comelec, however, earlier said that they plan to automate elections in Hong Kong and Singapore. A total of 589,830 overseas Filipinos registered for the 2010 elections. [See: Less than 600K overseas votes seen in 2010] According to the poll body’s statistics, 224,884 new voters were added to the list of 364,946 active voters from the past two elections. In addition to the land-based Filipinos, a total of 21,097 seafarers will also be allowed to vote in the 2010 elections. Since the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) law was passed in 2003, figures have not been encouraging. In the 2004 national elections, only 360,000 of the more than four million qualified overseas Filipinos had registered. Of this figure, only 65 percent or 233,092 actually voted. In the 2007 midterm elections, at least 145,000 more overseas Filipinos registered to vote but only 81,732 cast their ballots. Data from the Comelec indicated that the countries with the most number of overseas Filipino voters are Saudi Arabia with 111,549; Hong Kong, 95,355; and the United States of America, 40,430. In terms of geographic regions, the Middle East and African nations have the most number of overseas voters, with a total of 225,148. The Asia Pacific, meanwhile, has 215,548; Europe, 61,294; and North and Latin America, 66,743. - JV, GMANews.TV