RP officials in Saudi renew call for Pinoys to vote

JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA – Find time to go to the polling centers as early as possible to exercise your right to vote. Philippine officials here made this appeal to Filipino absentee voters amid a low voter turnout in the first week of overseas absentee voting (OAV). Vice Consul Roussel Reyes, the lead person in the OAV in Riyadh, said he is hoping that voter turnout would pick up this week. Voting started April 10 for registered overseas Filipinos and will end on May 10. In Saudi Arabia, 112,350 Filipinos are registered voters, or almost one-fifth of the 589,830 total numbers of registered absentee voters worldwide. The figure includes 52,689 in Riyadh, 37,083 in Jeddah and 21,537 in Al Khobar. About five percent of the number of voters has voted in Riyadh, according to Reyes. Votes cast in Jeddah and Al Khobar have reached four percent each. Labor Attaché David Dicang said the first week’s voter turnout in Al Khobar was low so efforts must be double to encourage more voters to participate. “The figure is still low and cooperation among Filipinos here must be doubled to pull up the results," he said. Despite this, Consul Leo Tito Ausan said the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah was happy over the results. He said the interest of overseas Filipinos to vote this year has increased compared to the 2004 and 2007 elections. “We expect many more to come and increase the percentage in the coming weeks, particularly during the weekend." Ausan said. First time voter A Filipina domestic helper working in Jeddah for 20 years, who admitted not knowing how to write, cast her vote half an hour before the first week of the overseas absentee voting concludes. The 53-year-old woman who hails from Cotabato was identified only as Aziza. Election officials in the city said Aziza was allowed to vote after her relationship with her brother, who assisted her in filling out her ballot, was validated. The teary-eyed Aziza said it was her first time to vote, saying she had been afraid of voting as she does not know how to write. “I am very thankful because now that I have voted, I feel more complete as a Filipino," she said in Filipino. Sylvestre Soriano, a 55-year-old line man of the Saudi Electric company and based in Taif, was also among those who voted early. “Voting is an obligation for all citizens of the Philippines. And don’t forget to choose intelligently," said Soriano, who admitted voting for the first time in 35 years. The former soldier, who had also worked guarding the Monument of Filipino Heroes at the Rizal Park in Manila, said the last time he voted was when he was 18. He said he wasn’t able to vote in the previous elections because he was often assigned elsewhere for election duties. A resident of Pandacan in Manila, Soriano managed to cast his vote Tuesday in Jeddah before going on a vacation. Meanwhile, Rudy Dianalan, a Filipino worker in Saudi whose senatorial bid was rejected by the Commission on Elections due to lack of political machinery, also voted along with his wife. Seventy-year-old Mohammad Eisa, an employee of the Sleep High Company in Jeddah, also cast his vote during the first week. Eisa, who is also a leader of a Filipino community there, is considered as the oldest Filipino so far to have participated in the OAV in Jeddah. Missing names Some registered voters, however, were disappointed after not finding their names in the certified list of overseas absentee voters (CLOAV). Reynaldo Laquian complained his name was not in the CLOAV for Jeddah but said he had filed for a transfer of his name from the Riyah CLOAV when he moved to Jeddah in October last year. Consulate officials said Laquian’s complaint would be forwarded to the Comelec in Manila and the Department of Foreign Affairs’ OAV Secretariat for verification. In Al Khobar, Dicang said around 50 registered Filipinos were unable to vote as their names were instead on Riyadh list. He said they have already reported such cases to Commission on Election in the Philippines for proper action. - JA/KBK, GMANews.TV