Kwentong Kapuso: Appoint an OFW to Comelec

Atty. Rodel Rodis, Philippine News

This column of Atty. Rodel Rodis appeared on the Philippine News, a content partner of GMA News Online.

Stripping 238,455 OAV voters of their right to vote by simply posting notices of the Comelec resolution in two PH publications subverts congressional intent.
 
Although the Commission on Elections pledges in its website (comelec.gov.ph) “to find ways to provide opportunities for the Filipinos who are abroad to be able to cast their votes and have their voices heard in a very important democratic process”, it has engaged in the exact opposite.

One example is the Comelec’s recent decision on January 17 to strip 238,557 OFW registered voters of their right to vote in the May 2013 elections simply because they did not timely file their “manifestation of intent to vote in the May 2013 elections.”

This Comelec resolution was approved on December 14, 2012 based on the recommendation of Lucenito Tagle, the Comelec Commissioner in charge of the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV), who is supposed to advocate for the interests of OFW voters. It relied on Chairman Sixto Brillantes, Jr.’s contention that the Philippine election law requiring the removal from the Comelec Philippine voters’ list of any voter who does not vote in two consecutive elections also applies also to overseas voters. This is wrong.

There is no language in the OAV law that supports Brillantes’ conclusion. Article 5 of the OAV law lists those OFWs who are to be disqualified from voting and no mention is made of those who fail to vote in two consecutive elections.

The closest reference to it is the provision in Section 9.2 which allows for the removal of any name on the Comelec registry of overseas voters “when the overseas absentee voter’s name was ordered removed by the Commission from the Registry of Overseas Absentee Voters for his/her failure to exercise his/her right to vote under this Act for two (2) consecutive national elections”.


Comelec cannot simply remove the name of a duly registered OAV voter who did not vote for two consecutive elections simply because it has the power to remove the name.

Did the 238,455 OAV affected voters receive adequate notice of their need to timely file their “manifestation” at a Philippine Consular office abroad in order to vote in the May 2013 elections? According to the Comelec resolution, notice of its decision was accomplished by “the immediate publication of this Resolution in two (2) newspapers of general circulation.”

How will posting notice of this resolution in two Philippine newspapers serve to give adequate notice to 238,455 OAV voters who reside in more than 190 countries abroad? Why did Comelec not publicize this resolution through ABS-CBN news -which it entered into a partnership with on October 15, 2012 - to use its global satellite reach inform overseas voters about this important resolution affecting their suffrage rights?
 
Section 10 of the 2003 OAV law requires Comelec to “cause the publication in a newspaper of general circulation” of information regarding the holding of elections. The same section also requires Comelec to “determine the countries where publication shall be made, and the frequency thereof, taking into consideration the number of overseas Filipinos present in such countries.”
 
In enacting the OAV law in 2003, Congress was mindful of the need to meaningfully reach out to the OAV voters wherever they may be residing abroad by requiring the publication of notices in the countries where the OAV voters reside. To strip 238,455 OAV voters of their right to vote by simply posting notices of the Comelec resolution in two Philippine publications subverts the congressional intent.
 
When the commissioners accepted their chair’s contention that the law applicable to voters in the Philippines applies to OAV voters as well, they did not understand that Section 2 of Article V of the 1987 Philippine Constitution gave Congress the explicit power to provide “a system for absentee voting by qualified Filipinos abroad.”  
 
Congress exercised this power by enacting the OAV Act of 2003 which created a “system” separate from the regular system for Philippine voters, a system which did not provide, unlike general Philippine election law, that the failure to vote in two consecutive elections would require removal from the Comelec overseas voters’ list.

Congress was aware of the vastly different conditions overseas Filipinos operate under, like the 200,000 Filipinos working on commercial vessels around the world who generally cannot vote in the ports they originally registered in, or the 1.2 million Filipinos in Saudi Arabia who live in homes with no street numbers making it difficult, if not impossible, for them to receive voting notices from the Philippine consular offices.  
 
Fortunately, President Aquino can right the ship by appointing an Overseas Filipino Worker  as a Comelec commissioner, filling one of two vacancies that opened up last week with the retirement of Rene Sarmiento and Armando Velasco. The appointment would be historic and a fitting way to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the passage of the Overseas Absentee Voting  law on February 13.Philippine News

Send comments to Rodel50@gmail.com or mail them to the Law Offices of Rodel Rodis at 2429 Ocean Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127 or call 415.334.7800.

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