Home 
MANILA, Philippines—Funds for overseas absentee voting (OAV) were not diverted from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to the Department of Foreign Affairs during the visit of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the United States last July, the DFA-OAV secretariat said Thursday.
In a statement, the secretariat denied a newspaper report alleging the diversion. The DFA-OAVS said it has a budget separate from the poll body’s, and allocated for expenses associated with OAV registration, including office supplies and materials, travel in connection with mobile registration, and information dissemination.
“The news report quoting Migrante chairman Gary Martinez has no basis in fact,” it said.
“Moreover, there is no factual basis to attribute alleged lack of funds as a reason for the non-registration of some overseas Filipinos as voters. In fact, the various Philippine embassies and consulates general have adequate funds and have been proactive. In particular, they conducted mobile registrations in more than 234 sites, apart from the numerous field registrations conducted by the said posts,” it added.
The OAVS said it has managed its funds properly; portions of the fund have been reserved as budget for the proposed automation in certain Philippine embassies and consulates general.
With the balance of 371,304 OAV voters and the 229,165 new OAV registrants, there are as of September 9 a total of 600,469 overseas Filipinos eligible to vote in the May 2010 elections.
