Absentee Voting Bill stuck at bicameral committee
(by Julie Javellana-Santos, OFW Journalism Consortium)
To advocates of the Absentee Voting Bill, no news was bad news. With no information coming out on the much-awaited bicameral conference committee on the AVB, they felt that overseas Filipinos had been trivialized once again, after having been placated with a promise that the long-awaited bill would be passed before the end of the year.
The AVB was passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives last month, but the bicameral conference committee has yet to be formally convened to hammer out its final form.
But Rep. Apolinario Lozada Jr., chairman of the House foreign relations committee, told AVB advocates on Dec. 18 that, in spite of the fact that the bicam has yet to meet, the bill will be passed into the Absentee Voting Law by the end of January. Lozada made the announcement at a forum co-sponsored by the Philippine Migrant Rights Watch and the Commission on Filipinos Overseas in celebration of International MigrantsDay.
He revealed that the work of the long-awaited bicam has actually been going on but in an unofficial manner. But instead of the full bicameral panels from both houses of Congress, only Sens. Edgardo Angara, Aquilino Pimentel and John Osmeña, and Reps. Lozada, Jesli Lapus, Ronaldo Zamora and Teodoro Locsin Jr. have been in attendance.
"Angara and I decided to look first at what we could do to resolve the worlds apart versions passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives" ,Lozada said.
He said that we started to study it closely and whatever was agreed upon in the informal bicam will be ratified when the full bicameral panel (with about 40 members) convenes on Jan. 15, 2003.
Among the provisions already settled are: Title: Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2002 (Senate version); Declaration of Policy: House version; Application to Vote: with embassies/Comelec; Period for appeals from denial of Application to Vote: within 60 days; Safeguarding of ballots by representatives from political parties and NGOs; Access to official records and documents: Open to all; and, Notice given to parties/persons concerned regarding the holding of elections/plebiscites and referenda.
But Pimentel said earlier it was agreed upon that at least the registration should be personal in order to preclude fraudulent registration. But, he added, once the registration is done, voting can be done personally or by mail.
The 11 major issues enumerated by Lozada revolve around: the coverage of the bill; the pilot testing provision according to the budget; the scope; mode of registration and registration requirements; registry of absentee voters to be provided to immigration authorities; restriction on campaigning abroad; voting procedure; effectivity of the law or the sunset provision; composition of Special Board of Election Inspectors; powers of the oversight committee vis-à-vis the implementing rules and regulations; and participation of overseas Filipino organizations.
Pimentel also said bicam members from the House of Representatives realize the basis for our objection to the sunset clause which seeks to limit the effectivity of absentee voting to the 2004 elections. He said the congressmen see that implementing pilot testing would allow the administration to pinpoint pilot centers in areas where they think they can predominate.
Demaree Raval, chief legislative counsel of Angara, said the bicam started out with 27 widely differing points and ended up with none. Raval, who heads the technical working group assisting the bicameral conference committee, revealed that we have been instructed to prepare the final form of the bill for the Jan. 15 bicameral meeting.
Raval said the most difficult issue involves the coverage of the bill on the officials to be elected by absentee voters. In the Senate version, overseas Filipinos would be entitled to vote for national officials and party-list representatives; in the House version, they can vote only for the president and the vice president.
Carmelita Nuqui, PMRW president, welcomed Lozadas announcement although she and Ellene Sana, advocacy officer of the Committee on Migrant Advocacy and the leaders of other migrant Filipino-related NGOs had hoped that the AVB would be signed into law by Dec. 18.
Nuqui said initially, the members of the PMRW, an umbrella organization of 11 other NGOs dealing with Filipino migrants and their families, were hesitant to schedule the forum since everybody might be in Malacañang to witness the signing of the AVB into law. This did not push through, however, as the bicameral conference on the AVB was shunted aside in favor of the 2003 General Appropriations Act.
Source: The Manila Times, 22 December 2002
'ABSENTEE VOTING TO MAKE POLLS MORE EXPENSIVE’. The overseas vote "will make our election more expensive." This was the assessment made yesterday by Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla as he discussed the implementation of the Absentee Voting Bill passed this month by both the Senate and House of Representatives.
"If we allot P250 a day for a poll watcher, that would only be around $4 when used (abroad, which is) not sufficient," Padilla, House minority leader, said at the Holiday Inn Manila press forum yesterday. "It will be very costly and hard to implement." If the absentee voting measure is implemented, Padilla said, processes in providing overseas Filipinos with the mechanisms to cast their ballots might be more expensive than the electoral process to be held in the country.
Padilla also warned that the government would be forced to borrow money for the absentee voting segment of the national elections, in which some 7.2 million overseas Filipinos are expected to participate. The lawmaker also bared points on which legislators in both chambers of Congress must agree upon, including whether candidates would be allowed to campaign abroad. He said his colleagues in the House do not want candidates to personally campaign, but senators are in favor of overseas campaigning.
Source: Philippine Star, 22 November 2002
IMAGINED FEARS SHOULD NOT BLOCK ABSENTEE VOTING BILL. Sen. Edgardo Angara said yesterday that "imagined" fears of electoral fraud should not prevent Congress from crafting the absentee voting law that overseas Filipinos have been waiting for 15 years.
Some sectors have warned that the law would decidedly benefit the administration coalition which has bigger resources and that the measure could pave the way for cheating and electoral fraud in favor of the majority coalition.
Angara, principal author and sponsor of the measure, said that the proposed law is a "visionary leap of faith" that should not be encumbered by imagined fears of cheating and electoral fraud. He said he sees the measure not as an added opportunity for electoral fraud but as a fulfillment of the long-cherished hopes of overseas Filipinos to participate in national elections.
Angara said that while he is with the opposition, he is spearheading the move to finally enact the law not only because it is constitutionally mandated but also because it recognizes the pivotal role played by overseas Filipinos in national development.
Source: Philippine Star, 8 November 2002
VOTING BY MAIL BEST FOR OVERSEAS PINOYS. Sen. Edgardo Angara said yesterday that voting by mail, as contained in the Senate-approved bill on absentee voting, is the most convenient way of allowing overseas Filipinos to vote in national elections.
The House version calls for the personal appearance of the overseas Filipino in the Philippine embassy or consulate to enjoy the right of suffrage.
Angara, principal author and sponsor of the Senate version, argued that the sheer number of Filipino expatriates in some countries would create an operational nightmare in implementing the proposed absentee voting law. He said that in Hong Kong alone, there are about 120,000 Filipinos, and if they would suddenly descend on the Philippine consulate there to vote, there is no way that they could all be accommodated.
Angara pointed out that in a local precinct with only 300 voters, voting would already take about eight hours. He also said that Filipinos in the Middle East would be virtually disenfranchised if they are not allowed to vote by mail. This was affirmed by a foreign affairs official who said that in Saudi Arabia with about 750,000 Filipinos, only about 10 percent would be able to vote if the House version is adopted.
Saudi Arabia, it was explained, is seven times bigger than the Philippines and that a plane ride by Boeing 747 from Dammam to Jeddah, the nearest Philippine consulate, takes four hours. They doubted if Filipinos would be willing to spend so much time and money just to be able to vote. Angara said it is also doubtful if Saudi employees would be willing to give their Filipino workers a day off to enable them to vote. Saudi Arabia has a different political orientation from the Philippines.
Source: Philippine Star, 13 November 2002
CONGRESS APPROVES ABSENTEE VOTING BILL ON FINAL READING. The House and Senate have approved on final reading vastly differing versions of an absentee voting bill, landmark legislation that will allow Filipinos residing overseas to vote for the first time in Philippine elections.
Depending on the results of a bicameral conference to reconcile the two versions, the overseas vote will empower an estimated four to 7.5 million Filipinos overseas. "This bill is a perfect gift (to the millions of Filipinos around the world) and is the least we can offer to reciprocate their sacrifices and heroism in helping shore up the country's economy during times of crisis," Speaker Jose de Venecia said. "We made history today. It is a second wind for Philippine politics," crowed opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara who the principal author of the Senate bill.
House Bill 3570 was approved by a vote of 132 to 9 on Monday night. Those who voted against the landmark measure, expected to take effect in 2004, cited the lack of safeguards to prevent fraud. The Senate passed its version Tuesday, with 17 voting for, one against and one abstaining. The Senate version allows overseas Filipinos to vote for president, vice president, senators and party-list representatives. Under the House bill, qualified Filipinos abroad can vote for president and vice president and in plebiscites. Those qualified to vote are overseas Filipinos who have not renounced Filipino citizenship.
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 23 October 2002
ABSENTEE VOTING LAW SAFE FROM FRAUD - ANGARA. Sen. Edgardo Angara said yesterday that the proposed Absentee Voting Law that the Senate approved on second reading last week has 35 safeguards against electoral fraud.
"Every step of the election process has safeguards to protect the integrity of the absentee vote," Angara said. Of the 35 safeguards, nine cover the registration process, 11 on the security of the ballots and other election paraphernalia, four on actual voting, nine on counting and canvass of votes, Angara said.
Angara, principal author and sponsor of the measure and chairman of the Senate committee on suffrage and electoral reforms, said on-site canvassing was almost unanimously endorsed by leaders of Filipino organizations in Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles Rome and the Middle East. The overseas Filipinos, who had apparently feared their votes would not be counted faithfully if canvassing were held in Manila, wanted on-site counting. Under the pending bill, absentee voters have to be listed under a separate registry. The absentee voter's name will be removed from that registry and transferred to the regular registry of voters should he or she decide to reside permanently in the Philippines.
Source: Philippine Star, 16 October 2002
SENATE PASSES BILL ON ABSENTEE VOTING. The Senate last night passed the Absentee Voting Law on second reading, paving the way for the more than seven million Filipinos living and working overseas to vote for the first time in the 2004 presidential election.
With a vote of 14-1, the Senate approved the priority measure that had been certified as urgent by Malacanang. It will be formally approved on third reading on Oct. 21. The House failed to approve a counterpart bill last night but House leaders said they would be doing so on Tuesday. Only administration Sen. Joker Arroyo voted against the new law, citing flaws that "could make the law an instrument for cheating."
Under Senate Bill 2104, all Filipinos abroad who are at least 18 years old on the day of the election would be allowed to vote for the candidates for President, Vice President, senators and party-list representatives. They will also be allowed to cast their votes in referendums and plebiscites on national issues. The new law will benefit the estimated three million overseas Filipino workers, more than two million permanent residents, and 1.6 million undocumented Filipinos in foreign countries.
Overseas Filipinos (OFs) may register by mail or personally with the embassy or consular office in their places of residence. They may then vote, also by mail or by personally casting their ballot at the nearest Philippine embassy or consular office. The counting and canvassing of the votes will be done "on-site." An election official assigned to that foreign country is to send the summary of results to Manila for proper tabulation.
Angara said there was much debate on the requirement of "physical presence" for voters who would be allowed to register by mail. But Angara explained that the Constitutional Commission, in mandating that Congress should provide for "a system for absentee voting by qualified Filipinos abroad," had deliberated on the issue and "left it to the discretion of the legislature whether to require physical presence or not." He argued that it would be too burdensome and expensive for the overseas Filipinos to have to return to their hometowns just to register.
The opposition leader also noted that it was "the request of the OFs that the counting and canvassing of the votes be undertaken where they voted." He said the new law would allow even undocumented Filipinos to vote. Angara said that, in the registration and casting of votes, "the Commission on Elections is not required to inquire into the status of the voter."
Arroyo, the lone opposition to the bill, said he was more worried about what the administration would be capable of doing with the new voting law. Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda, a co-sponsor of the bill, said the passage of the absentee voting law was "a major breakthrough in efforts by Congress to allow overseas Filipinos to vote from their place of work." She noted that Filipinos abroad are "keenly aware of the political and economic development of the country so they have a stake in shaping the country's future."
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 10 October 2002
US-BASED OFWS WARN: "No Absentee Voting Law, No Remittance".
A US-based group of overseas Filipino workers is threatening to stage a "partial remittance boycott" if a pending bill, seeking to allow about seven million OFWs to vote from abroad, is not passed by the end of October. The Global Coalition of the Political Empowerment of Overseas Filipinos (Empower-USA) urged OFWs to use their "economic leverage" to persuade lawmakers to pass the measure which has been stuck in the Senate since May. "The OFWs will use their ultimate economic leverage to bring the absentee voting bill to the fore and use their remittance as a weapon to urge Congress to get its act together," the group s president, Marvin Bionat, said. But Bionat stressed the group was not asking OFWs to stop sending funds to their families, only to stop sending through government banks which handles around 70 percent of OFW remittances.
"This is not a call to completely stop sending funds to our families back home. We cannot punish our families for the failure of politicians," Bionat said. But he urged OFWs to "blacklist" politicians who are blocking the passage of the bill and asked foreign agencies to stop lending money to the Philippines. Bionat also suggested to OFWs that they send home packages instead of the usual cash gifts. The group s campaign is also being supported by other local OFW groups, like the Kapisanan ng mga Kamag-anak ng Migrante Mamayang Pilipino (Kakammpi).
Kakammpi launched a separate campaign, dubbed "Tutukan si Congressman," which involves asking OFWs and their families to write their congressmen to persuade them to push for the passage of the bill. The absentee voting bill has already passed the House of Representatives after a bicameral mission conducted consultative hearings among OFWs in several countries. But the bill hit a snag in the Senate when political bickering derailed the progress of practically all pending legislative measures. Aside from the absentee voting bill, the other bills are the proposed Special Purpose Assets Vehicle (SPAV) Act of 2002, the franchise of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) and the charter of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But the opposition scored a morale-boosting victory after administration senators gave in to the opposition s demand to immediately calendar the absentee voting bill before other measures are acted upon.
Source: Riyadh Daily, 2 October 2002