Fil-Am voters can also vote in PH polls if…

Filipino-Americans who voted for either Barrack Obama or Mitt Romney in the US presidential elections are expected to also participate in choosing the next Philippine president should amendments to the overseas absentee voting (OAV) law  pass this Congress.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, the chairman of the Senate committee on electoral reforms, said the proposed amendments will remove a controversial requirement that overseas registrants execute an affidavit saying they will return to the Philippines within three years after their registration.

Pimentel noted  that of the 10 million qualified Filipino citizen voters abroad, only close to one million are registered.

“A lot of them are not registering because of that affidavit requirement. If we take that out, then maybe more will register,” Pimentel said in a text message.

Pimentel expressed confidence that online voter registration would also pass the present Congress.

Pimentel  sponsored earlier this week the amendments to what he called were “outdated provisions” of the OAV law.

“I am optimistic that 10 times a million overseas voters may be possible in 2016 and beyond with the enactment of Senate Bill No. 3312,” Pimentel said in his sponsorship speech of the measure.

Pimentel said 13 million Filipinos remit some $20 billion annually. It was only proper that they are empowered to help select national leaders from the president to the senators, he added.

“In this proposed measure, we have deleted that entire controversial provision to give our Filipino brothers and sisters abroad the right of suffrage without any preconditions,” said Pimentel.