An absentee voter cast her vote at Bayanihan Kennedy Town Centre Polling Centre, Hong Kong. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Friday said that based on latest figures, the new Overseas Absentee Voters (OAVs) have reached 260,000, surpassing the numbers of new registrants for the 2010 presidential elections.
In an interview, DFA undersecretary Jose Brillantes, also chairman of the Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat, said that this was a “significant accomplishment since traditionally, there is a higher number for presidential elections.”
He said that in 2010, there was a total of about 250,000 new OAV registrants.
He noted that when added to the stock total of 589,860 registrants from the 2010 elections, the number of overseas Filipino registrants for the 2013 Senatorial and Partylist elections has reached 850,000.
Asked whether the 1,000,000 target would be reached barely two months before the deadline on October 31, Brillantes said that they remained optimistic, noting that usually there was a surge of registrants during the last months of OAV registration.
“We are hoping to be able to reach the target of one million…. should that not materialize it will be short by probably a few thousand,” Brillantes said.
Brillantes noted that the opening of local registration centers was one of the major reasons why there was a significant increase in the numbers, saying that the offices were able to get the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to register prior to their departure.
Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Commissioner Lucenito Tagle, Chairman of the poll body’s Committee on Overseas Absentee Voting (COAV), in a press conference noted that in NAIA Manila, a total of 59, 473 registered while there were 38, 447 newly registered voters in the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Manila.
Local registrations centers were set up at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminals 1 and 2, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Commission on Filipinos Overseas and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
Brillantes added that the surge in numbers was proof that more OFWs wanted to respond to the call and vote for the 2013 elections.
Meanwhile, the OAV summit group, composed of different civil society groups, called on OFWs to register before the deadline, saying that Filipinos should maximize the use of social media to campaign for the registration.
In a statement, the group said that Filipino bloggers should feature prominently on their websites every Friday the top 10 foreign posts with the biggest number of overseas Filipino registrants.
“Hopefully, this will spur competition not only among our foreign posts but also within and amongst Filipino communities, to bag a slot in this list of top performing posts,” it said in the statement.
The group is composed of representatives from the Philippine Migrants Rights Watch, Migrant NGO Forum, Filipino Migrant Workers Group, Ople Policy Institute and Training Center, Center for Migrant Advocacy, and ICOFVR-Hongkong.
The 12-month OAV registration, which began on Oct. 31, 2011, runs until Oct. 31 of this year. Less than two more months remain for other overseas Filipinos to register.