Rep. Gloria Arroyo wants Overseas Absentee Voting Act amended

Former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has filed a bill in the House of Representatives seeking amendments to the country’s Overseas Absentee Voting Act or Republic Act 9189 that aim to expand overseas Filipino voters’ access to the ballot. Arroyo filed House Bill 3001, which provides for the setting up of more field and mobile registration centers where overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) can register for overseas absentee voting (OAV). “It is an important legislative measure which establishes the mechanism by which Filipinos overseas can participate in our democratic exercise and this was shown from our 2004 until the recent 2010 elections," she said in the measure. Arroyo’s bill also suggests the holding of a pre-departure registration in accredited government agencies or facilities to be determined by the Commission on Elections (Comelec). In her measure, the Pampanga lawmaker attributed low OFW voter turnout in recent elections to shortened registration period, stringent voting requirements, limited voting facilities, limited days-off from work, and cost considerations. Arroyo said that she introduced the new bill in Congress to make the law more liberal in terms of administrative requirements for OAV. "This bill aims to enfranchise more Filipino overseas voters by relaxing restrictive provisions of the law which will surely give our countrymen abroad a stronger voice in choosing our leaders," she said. RA 9189 was enacted in 2003 to provide an opportunity for the more than eight million Filipinos abroad to exercise their right in electing the President, Vice President, senators and one party-list representative. (See: GMA News OAV Primer) After Congress approved the OAV in 2003, about 300,000 Filipinos abroad registered to vote in the two-month registration period, as preparation for the 2004 elections that included the presidential and vice-presidential vote. This number dipped in 2006, however, when only 142,000 Filipinos in the 13-month registration period for the 2007 mid-term elections. The OAV figures picked up again during the 2010 polls, when 364,187 OFWs registered to vote. Of this number, however, only 233,092 were able to participate in the May 2010 polls.—JV, GMANews.TV