MANILA – Former president Fidel Ramos made a last-minute appeal to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to register and vote in the May 2010 elections.
In issuing the appeal, Ramos pointed out that the OFWs could constitute a “swing vote†that could determine the winner in next year’s presidential race, especially in a closely-contested election.
By voting, Ramos also emphasized the OFWs could elect into office members of the House and the Senate who could best represent their concerns and interests.
He cited the urgent need for the OFWs to register now because the August 31 deadline is now just four days away, starting Friday.
Under the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) Law, qualified Filipino voters working abroad can participate in the May 2010 elections to vote for president, vice president, senators and party-list representatives.
Ambassador Nestor Padullar of the OAV secretariat at the Department of Foreign Affairs, echoed the appeal of Ramos, saying that the OFWs could play a decisive role in determining who would win in the polls and replace President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro whose terms expire on June 30, 2010.
The OAV secretariat is the main agency mandated by law to campaign and encourage the estimated nine million OFWs deployed mainly in the Middle East, the US, Canada, Europe and neighboring Asian countries to register and vote in the coming polls.
Padullar said the country maintains 97 diplomatic posts worldwide where the expatriate Filipinos could register.
He reported that as of August 25, a total of 196,000 OFWs have registered since the registration period opened in February.
But Padullar expressed optimism that the number could increase to 600,000 by the time the registration ends on August 31.
Nevertheless, this is still way below the one million OFW voters that the OAV secretariat has targeted for next year’s polls.
Padullar explained that based on reports received by the secretariat, there has been a rush among OFWs to beat the deadline, particularly in the Middle East where an average of 2,000 Filipino workers have been registering daily at the various Philippine diplomatic missions.
Padullar lamented that the tendency of the Filipinos to procrastinate (also called the “manana†or “tomorrow†habit) could be a reason for the late registration of many of the qualified OFW voters.
Padullar also reminded that despite appeals from non-government organizations working for the protection and interests of OFWs, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has refused to extend the deadline for their registration.
Comelec Commissioner Lucenito Tagle said extending the registration is not feasible as he pointed out that this would adversely affect the period allocated for the printing of ballots that would be used in the May 2010 elections.
For the first time in the country’s history, the 2010 presidential and local elections will be fully computerized and thus wean it away from the ancient and outdated method of manual voting and counting of ballots which have been blamed for charges of massive cheating and other poll irregularities in the past.
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