House to provide funds for OFW voter registration

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives will try to provide funds for the registration of millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) for the 2016 national elections.

“We will include a small amount in the 2015 budget for the registration of our compatriots abroad who want to vote in the coming elections,” Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, appropriations committee chairman, said yesterday.

He said a select committee that is now finalizing the 2015 budget proposal and which he also heads would determine the amount.

“Whatever it is, whether it is P1 million, P5 million or P10 million, the important thing is that it is there. If it is there, they can augment the appropriation. If it is not there, there is nothing to augment,” he said.

He added that as of now, there is no fund to augment.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has sought P90 million for the listing of overseas Filipinos, but the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) scrapped it.

President Aquino did not include the Comelec-recommended fund in his 2015 budget proposal.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. has promised the appropriations committee that they would try to source the needed funds from their savings.

However, he said such savings were being reserved for the Comelec building.

While the Comelec has no budget for next year for the registration of overseas Filipinos, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will have P43 million.

DFA Secretary Albert del Rosario has reported to the Ungab committee that as of Aug. 31 this year, 1,075,380 overseas Filipinos have registered for the May 2016 elections.

Of that number, those in the Middle East and Africa comprised the biggest group with 432,899 registrants, followed by Asia and the Pacific with 316,656, the Americas with 163,892, and Europe with 114,005.

Only a sprinkling of Filipino voters based abroad participated in previous national elections, prompting some lawmakers to call for a review of the overseas absentee voting law.