MANILA – The chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced the start on February 1 the start of the registration of qualified overseas Filipinos who want to vote in the May 2010 presidential elections.
Retired Supreme Court justice Jose Melo, the Comelec chief, said overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), who are considered as absentee voters, could secure from and file the applications for registration with the accredited Comelec representatives at the Philippine embassies, consulates or similar foreign service establishments where the OFWs reside temporarily.
The same applications, Melo added, could also be filed at places in the Philippines, which have been authorized by the Committee on Overseas Absentee Voting (COAV) such as the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in suburban Pasay City, Metro Manila.
A law, officially known as the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003, allows OFWs and their counterparts to participate in the country’s electoral process and cast their ballots in designated polling places abroad, like embassies.
Melo said that aside from voting for the successor of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the May 2010 elections, the OFWs can also choose elective officials like vice president, senators, congressmen and party-list representatives to Congress as well as governor, mayor, vice mayor and councilor.
The registration, Melo said, will end on August 31, 2009 as he urged the estimated eight million OFWs now working in the Middle East, Europe, North America and neighboring Asian and Pacific countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea to register so they could participate in the 2010 elections.
According to the Comelec chairman, all Filipino citizens who intend to vote abroad should at least be 18 years old on Election Day and not otherwise disqualifed by law, for example, for a major crime committed.
Every applicant, he added, is required to submit a valid Philippine passport to establish his identity.
In the case of a Filipino seafarer, Melo said a photocopy of the Seaman’s Book or any other pertinent document must be presented.
Melo emphasized the applicant is required to appear personally before the Comelec representatives assigned to the embassy or foreign post where the OFW is temporarily residing.
Earlier, Comelec Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, who is in charge of the listing of overseas Filipino voters, said the registration was originally scheduled to start on December 1, 2008 but was reset to February 1 this year.
Ferrer explained experience has shown that there was a low turnout in the number of OFWs registering in December and January when expatriate Filipinos go home to spend the holidays with their families.
Moreover, Ferrer cited the need for the Comelec to install in the embassies and similar foreign service establishments the data capturing machines (DCMs) and peripherals to be used in the registration of the OFWs.
He pointed out: “It is the policy of the Comelec to establish a clean, accurate and complete list of overseas absentee voters through the adoption of biometrics technology in the registration process at all posts and in especially designated areas outside such posts in the Philippines.”
Although February 1 is a Sunday, Ferrer said the Comelec made arrangements with the Philippine embassies, consulates and similar establishments to open as well as on weekends for the registration of the absentee voters.
The Comelec official said it is during weekends that the OFWs are allowed by their employers to go out and have their day off.
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