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As COMELEC Turns Down
30-Day Extension:
ALVAREZ PRESSES FOR ONE
MORE WEEK OF OVERSEAS REGISTRATION
September 9, 2003
Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Communities
Secretary Heherson T. Alvarez today reiterated his
call for the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to
extend the registration period for Filipino voters
overseas by even just a week or until Oct. 7, 2003.
"Even as we have already intensified our own
registration campaign lately via tri-media, we do
strongly feel that every conceivable effort must
be exerted to maximize the participation of potential
voters in next year's elections. Let us leave no
stone unturned in truly empowering every qualified
Filipino to vote," Alvarez said in another
petition he filed before the poll body yesterday
(Sept. 8).
This developed after COMELEC Chair Benjamin Abalos
rejected for lack of time a similar petition Alvarez
filed last week, seeking to extend the overseas
registration by another 30 days, or until Oct. 30,
from the original Aug. 1 to Sept. 30 period set
by the COMELEC.
According to the former senator, even just a seven-day
extension of the registration of Filipino voters
overseas will be very critical to government's campaign
to include the voices of our Overseas Filipino Workers
(OFWs) in choosing the country's national leadership.
Alvarez said the low turn out of overseas registrants
and other unexpected circumstances and difficulties
of the registration process necessitates that contingencies
and adjustments would have to be made now.
"Registration, being the most crucial stage
of this democratic process, is the key to the exercise
of the right of suffrage. We must then liberally
afford all the time and opportunity for our compatriots
abroad to register. This is a first time experience
for our country and thus, the need for a little
more time," he said.
Updates from the Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat
website of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)
showed that as of Sept. 8 or over a month since
the registration started last Aug. 1, only a total
of 116,520 voters registered in the government's
81 embassies, three consular offices and three satellite
stations all over the world.
This represents some 6.8 percent of the total estimated
target of 1.7 million potential voters.
Earlier, Alvarez enumerated the problems encountered
by OFWs as: (1) inaccessible registration centers
located in Philippine Embassy and consulates; (2)
strict or uncooperative employers who refuse to
give them day offs; (3) some host countries are
not reception to democratic processes such as elections;
(4) lack of Data Capturing Machines/Biometric Machines
(DCMs); (5) lack of public information on the overseas
absentee voting; and (6) the need for government
to study the impact of Republic Act 9225 or the
Citizenship Retention and Reacquisition Act of 2003
on the Overseas Absentee Voting Law.
It may be recalled that the original schedule for
overseas registration was for three months. Article
10, Period to file application for registration
of COMELEC Resolution No. 6117 (promulgated on May
14, 2003) for the overseas absentee voting law states
that the registration should take place for three
months from July 1 to Sept. 30, 2003.
But the registration period was postponed by COMELEC
to August 1, 2003 when it came out with Resolution
No. 6183 (promulgated on May 26, 2003), amending
the period of registration from July 1 -Sept. 30,
to Aug. 1 - Sept. 30, cutting down the registration
period to only two months.
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