We are having our OAV registration here in Lagos, Nigeria 2 weeks from now. So we are trying to help the embassy disseminate the information to as many of our kababayans as possible, as the embassy/consulate is located in another area of this country and will only be travelling to our state especially for this.
Submitted by ljius on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 03:57.DFA pushing for more OFWs to register in OAV
By Maria Aleta Nieva-Nishimori, abs-cbnNEWS.com | 07/30/2009 10:34 PM
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With just one more month to go, the registration for overseas absentee voting is going full blast.
“Unang-una nakapagsulat na ang aming chair sa napakaraming Filipino community organizations around the world tapos ngayon naka-focus sila sa mobile at field registration hindi na ‘yong maghihintay na lang sa embassy. Napakaraming mobile field registration going on,” said Ambassador Nestor Padalhin.
Padalhin is the vice chairman of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat.
Although the 1 million target voters for the 2010 elections may be hard to achieve now, Padalhin is still confident to get “a good number of OAV voters”.
“We’re still hoping. Usually naman kasi kapag mga last minute masigasig ang mga Pilipino kapag malapit nang matapos ‘yong deadline,” he said.
Padalhin added that the secretariat’s concern now is to get Filipinos to actually register.
“Ang concern namin at this point in time is makuha ‘yong mga kababayan natin na mag-register. After the registration we will work hard also that they will be able to vote,” he said.
According to Padalhin, one of the concerns for the low turnout of registrants cited by overseas posts is the geographical distance.
As of July 29, the OAV Secretariat reported a total 154,402 registrants have been recorded since the start of the registration period on February1, 2009. The registration will end on August 31, 2009.
The top 10 countries are United States of America (22,780 registrants); China (17,435); United Arab Emirates (11,302); Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (8,708); Taiwan (6,741); Singapore (6,555); Canada (5,498); Japan (4,884); United Kingdom (4,847); and Italy (3,962).
OAV Secretariat has announced earlier that the number of 2009 Overseas Absentee Voter registrants has surpassed the combined number of registrants for 2005 and 2006.
DFA Undersecretary and OAV Secretariat Chairman Rafael Seguis said the figure of OAV registrants for 2005/6 is 142,667.
Meanwhile, migrants and advocacy groups are willing to go the extra mile to help encourage more Filipinos abroad to register.
“We still have one month. Kung magpo-positive thinking ka, lahat ng suporta ibibigay mo, ganoon dapat iyon… iyong environment maging enabling,” said Ellene Sana, executive director of the Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA).
Sana said migrants and other advocacy groups are trying to cooperate with the POEA to do a “public address” to thousands of potential and balik-manggagawa OFWs.
“Puwede po ba bago kayo umalis ng POEA ay magrehistro po kayo? Up to that extent we are willing to go. I think the call now is to really encourage as many OFWs and overseas Filipinos na magrehistro at makilahok, makialam sa nangyayari sa ating bansa,” she said.
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