AFTER five days (Aug. 19-23) of tireless advocacy work for the long-delayed Absentee Voting bill, overseas Filipino groups abroad and their local migrant NGO counterparts here embraced and thanked each other for a job well done. "Hay salamat at nawa’y maipasa na ang Absentee Voting bill ngayong Congress (I am so thankful and hopeful that the current Congress will pass the Absentee Voting bill)," said Filomena Tagura, a pastoral worker who had come all the way from Barcelona, Spain.
Robert Ceralvo, a 50-year-old businessman from the United States, had the same reaction. Ceralvo has not yet voted in any election, since migrating to the United States after having been a political detainee together with now Senator Aquilino Pimentel during Martial Law.
"I pay my taxes regularly and I diligently remit my dollars to the Philippines. Please help me vote," Ceralvo pleaded. But he is more optimistic now than he ever was before.
Thanks to a certification from President Arroyo during her State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) on July 23, multi-partisan legislators are now engaged in legislative debate about the Absentee Voting bill, to the delight of civil society advocates both here and abroad.
No one can blame the convenors of the OFWs' advocacy visit for their optimism and sense of achievement. The convenors are: KAKAMMPI, the Platform of Filipino Migrant Organizations in Europe, Global Coalition for the Political Empowerment of Overseas Filipinos (EMPOWER), and eLAGDA (Community of Filipinos Connected through Technology).
"Nag-uunahan ang mga legislators na mag-file ng mga bills (The legislators are racing to file the bills). But we don’t really concern ourselves with the stories (behind their actions)," said eLAGDA’s Noel Esquela.
According to Platform’s Nonoi Hacbang, the promises legislators made during the OFWs' five-day advocacy visit "must be translated into actual legislative processing."
With all the action in Congress regarding the Absentee Voting bill, it's passage may become the next victory of civil society.
Early developments
On August 29, the joint House committees on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, Foreign Affairs, and Labor and Employment approved the consolidated version of 14 bills on Absentee Voting, which Suffrage committee chair Rep. Augusto Syjuco (Iloilo) calls "Overseas Voting."
Aside from Syjuco, other proponents of the as yet unnumbered consolidated House bill include House Speaker Jose de Venecia, foreign affairs committee chair Jose Apolinario Lozada (Negros Occidental), labor and employment chair Roseller Barinaga (Zamboanga del Norte), and Benasing Macarambon (of Lanao del Sur). Rep. Macarambon was a prime mover of the bill during the tenth Congress.
Suffrage and Electoral Reforms committee secretary Erwin Lara said the consolidated version will be presented in the House’s plenary session for first and second readings.
However, the real battle over the bill was held the day before, on August 28, when civil society advocates and representatives of the congressmen who authored the 14 Absentee Voting bills debated during a Technical Working Group (TWG) meeting.
Civil society lobbyists led by Esquela, Netherlands-based Carlo Butalid, and three members of the Philippine Migrants’ Rights Watch (PMRW) were successful in getting their inputs integrated into the consolidated version of the Overseas Voting law which now promotes "inclusivity".
Resolutions
Among the critical issues resolved by the technical working group was the coverage of absentee voting. It was agreed that overseas voting will be given to "any Filipino abroad who has not renounced his Filipino citizenship and who may provide proof of his citizenship."
This proposed provision welcomes all kinds of overseas Filipinos – migrant workers and immigrants, documented and undocumented workers, sea-based and land-based workers.
Also related to coverage, the consolidated version provides that government will implement absentee voting for all national elections (president, vice president, senators, and party-list representatives) until such time as an oversight committee can determine if the absentee voting process can include local elections.
Registration and voting by absentee or overseas voters will be done through mail or by voting at the nearest diplomatic office (embassy, consulate or any venue designated by the Philippine government).
But Butalid, the spokesperson of the advocacy delegation, insisted that counting should be done at the embassies and consulates in order to "safeguard the integrity of the ballot." This was supported by the representatives of the House bills’ authors.
Butalid also said that overseas Filipino groups and NGOs here and abroad should be encouraged to participate in the entire electoral process – "from the crafting of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR), composing electoral boards, monitoring the polls, up to the counting and canvassing of votes."
Suffrage and Electoral Reforms committee secretary Erwin Lara sought the help of seafarers’ NGOs to devise ways for seafarers to vote during the elections since they are highly mobile compared to land-based workers and immigrants.
Global delegation’s ‘wish lists’
The consolidated version includes many items in the advocacy group’s "wish list". Aside from coverage, registration, means of voting, and the involvement of NGOs and Filipino migrant communities, the members of the global delegation also lobbied for the following points:
No residency requirements, either in the Philippines or abroad, for one to be able to register and vote;
Campaigning abroad should be as free as campaigning in the Philippines;
Election boards set up at the Philippine diplomatic unit shall be headed by a senior career diplomat and joined by members of the Filipino community;
Simplification of the registration process by making it possible for a voter to register as a voter and apply for an absentee ballot at the same time;
The issue of dual citizenship shall be treated as separate from absentee voting; and
The implementation of the absentee voting law should not be tied to the schedule of the Commission on Elections’ computerization of the elections.
Budget for absentee voting
In the August 29 joint committee hearing, Comelec commissioner Resureccion Borra forwarded a proposed budget of P 596 million for the implementation of the absentee voting law. The amount is broken down into: travel expenses (P25 million), communication services (P125 million), supplies and materials (P156 million), education and information campaign (P200 million), advertisements and publications (P40 million), and miscellaneous expenses (P50 million).
However, the Department of Foreign Affairs, which will be a relevant agency in the implementation of absentee voting, did not present any funding proposal for the additional work of the over-80 diplomatic units abroad related to absentee voting..
In the Comelec’s proposed budget, nothing was allotted for personnel services and honoraria for deputizing election watchers, registration officials, and canvassers.
For its part, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) vowed to help in the information dissemination campaign. However, administrator Wilhelm Soriano said OWWA’s capacity to promote absentee voting is limited to the 2,885,628 members of the welfare fund agency.
The Comelec’s budget proposal noted that there should be no registration of absentee voters in embassies or consulates, or any site abroad, which runs counter to the proposal of the overseas Filipinos’ advocacy group.
Civil society tactics
During their visit, the advocacy group saw to it that the progress of the absentee voting bill is fast tracked. At the Comelec on August 20, they told Comelec chair Alfredo Benipayo that they are willing to share with the poll body a computer software program suited for the registration of voters.
"That (computer software program) is free of charge," said OFW Net Foundation president Chee Garcia, a physician.
This offer was also mentioned during the group's visit to the Senate on August 21, attended by Senate President Franklin Drilon and constitutional amendments committee chair Sen. Edgardo Angara, who will oversee the chamber's proposals on absentee voting. Angara welcomed the suggestion of a computerized mechanism for voter registration.
The consolidated House , however, that the government will only allow the computerization of absentee voting after the traditional modes – by mail or voting at the embassies and consulates – prove successful.
At a forum at the University of the on August 20, the advocacy group threatened to stage a "remittance boycott" if the bill does not move forward.
But Empower head Marvin Bionat said that will have to be a "very drastic" move as the convenors will first stage other strategic campaigns for absentee voting. "That (remittance boycott) will become an extreme measure already for us," Bionat said.
However, if the absentee voting bill moves or is not passed by this Congress, "we will consider strong options," said Bionat.
For her part, Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation executive director May-ann Villalba disagreed with the remittance boycott as it will affect the families of OFWs and immigrants left in the country. In relation to absentee voting, Villalba said it will be okay if the bill is "delayed, but not derailed."
"Nasa atin na ang bola (The ball is in our court), how to ‘threaten’ our lawmakers," she pointed out.
One example of a good advocacy campaign was the postcard-sending project of Platform. According to Hacbang, who is also executive director of the Netherlands-based Commission on Filipino Migrant Workers (CFMW), OFWs and immigrants’ families and relatives in the Netherlands have sent postcards to the senators and representatives to appeal for the passage of the absentee voting bill.
The biggest stumbling block
But the biggest stumbling block to the OFWs' hopes is the Senate. In 14-years of lobbying for absentee voting, NGOs say that the Senate has been the more problematic legislative branch. By contrast, the House passed the absentee voting bill during the ninth and tenth Congress.
The Estrada impeachment trial derailed the legislative movement of the bill in both chambers during the 11th Congress.
Esquela said the NGOs here and abroad should be more vigilant in lobbying the Senate to finally pass the bill. For her part, advocacy officer Ellene Sana of the Kapisanan ng mga Kamag-anak ng Migranteng Manggagawang Pilipino (Kakammpi) admitted that the intellectual savvy of the Senate over the House will determine the movement of the absentee voting bill.
But during the advocacy group’s courtesy visit, half of the Senate came to meet the delegation. The courtesy visit also became a bi-partisan event as both administration and opposition lawmakers agreed to approve the bill.
Some delegation members said that it was like an "early victory", with just one more senator needed to affirm the absentee voting bill to get it passed.
However, Sen. Drilon said point-blank that the Senate cannot pass the bill before December 2001 because "we have the 2002 national budget to work on.".
In contrast, House Speaker Jose de Venecia said the House will pass the overseas voting bill by December 2001. According to him, "Eh Senado naman lagi ang problema eh (The Senate is always the problem)."
The advocacy continues
Before the members of the advocacy group said their goodbyes on August 23, they asked the local NGOs to continue the advocacy that they have initiated. "This is why we have to partner with our local counterparts," said Hacbang.
The 2001 advocacy visit was the biggest ever with a total of 50 overseas- and local-based delegates. Platform and Kakammpi organized the 1999 and 2000 advocacy visits; Empower and eLAGDA joined them as co-convenors this year.
For his part, Butalid is hoping that the bill will finally be passed. "Dapat wala nang advocacy visit next year at nakakapagod na itong ginagawa natin (There shouldn’t be any more advocacy visit next year because this is tiring work)," he said.
That will, however, depend entirely on the country’s lawmakers.
See also: Materials on Overseas Voting
