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A. Registration Period:
The implementation of the OAV began with the preparation for registration of overseas absentee voters from 01 August to 30 September 2003.
B. Places of Registration:
Registrations of overseas absentee voters were largely conducted at the different Philippine Embassies, Consulates and other Foreign Service Establishments abroad authorized by the Commission.
Field registrations were also conducted outside the Posts as not all Filipinos abroad are concentrated in the area where the Posts are situated. Accordingly, the field registration areas ranged from eleven (11) to two thousand one hundred ninety one (2,191) kilometers from the Posts. In Tokyo alone, there were twenty-six (26) field registrations that were conducted.
Posts reported one hundred per cent (100%) usage of the Data Capturing Machines (DCMs) with the case of Philippine Embassy in Singapore experiencing technical problems in days where turn out of registrants was heavy.
In the Philippines, registration was conducted at the Offices of the Election Officers in the different municipalities and cities all over the archipelago.
In case of seafarers, they also filed their applications at the Commission on Elections, Committee on Overseas Absentee Voting, 7th Floor, Palacio del Gobernador, Intramuros, Manila.
C. Qualifications for Registration:
- At least eighteen (18) years of age on the day of the election;
- Filipino citizen;
- In case of an immigrant or permanent resident, execution of an affidavit of intent to resume actual physical residence in the Philippines not later than three (3) years from approval of his application for registration and has not applied for citizenship in another country;
- Not otherwise disqualified under the law
D. Requirements for Registration:
- A valid Philippine passport or in the absence thereof, any of the following:
- Applicant's expired passport;
- Duly authenticated birth certificate from the National Statistics Office;
- Residency card;
- Employment card;
- Local identification card issued by the host country;
- Accomplished application form;
- In case of an immigrant or permanent resident, execution of an Affidavit of Intent to resume actual physical residence in the Philippines not later than three (3) years from approval of his application for registration and has not applied for citizenship in another country.
E. Nature of Application for Registration:
- Application for Registration in case of non-registered voters;
- Application for Certification in case of registered voters.
F. Approval of Application for Registration/ Certification:
The concerned Election Registration Boards (ERBs) of the municipality/city where the applicant is a registered voter or in case on non-registered voter, in the municipality/city where he resides prior to his departure.
G. Schedules of ERB Hearings:
The entire registration period generated three hundred sixty four thousand one hundred eighty seven (364,187) registrants out of the prospective less than a million targeted overseas absentee voters or one-third of the expected turn out with data originally coming from the different Posts and collated by the OAVS.
After initial verification with the Posts, all the application forms were sent to the COAV for proper turnover to the local Election Registration Boards (ERBs) for verification of the addresses given by the applicants. The hearings of the local ERBs were conducted on the following dates:
- 08 September 2003
- 15 September 2003
- 30 September 2003
- 07 October 2003
- 13 October 2003
- 23 October 2003
- 29 October 2003
- 04 November 2003
- 12 November 2003
On said hearings, the applications for registration were either approved or disapproved by the ERBs. Thereafter, the processed forms were returned to the COAV. These approved forms became the basis of the Certified List of Overseas Absentee Voters (CLOAV).
Unfortunately, this cumbersome and tedious procedure presented a major bottleneck in the implementation of the OAV Law as eventually, OAVS and COAV yielded different results as to the actual number of registered Filipino overseas voters. The Certified List of Overseas Absentee Voters (CLOAV) generated by COAV contains three hundred fifty nine thousand two hundred ninety seven (359,297) approved overseas absentee voters. To date, the COAV is still receiving both processed and unprocessed application forms from the local ERBs who had to contend as well with the processing of local registration during the same period.
H. Statistics on Registration:
As mentioned, the DFA, through the Philippine Posts abroad, generated three hundred sixty seven thousand one hundred eighty seven (364,187) registrants, three hundred sixty one thousand eight hundred eighty four (361, 884) of which were classified as regular OAV voters. Two thousand twenty (2,020) of the applications received came from dual citizens while five hundred sixty seven (567) requested for transfer from voting abroad to their places of residence in the Philippines of which five hundred twenty (520) were granted and forty seven (47) were denied. Hence the final figure of three hundred fifty nine thousand two hundred ninety seven (359,297) in the CLOAV.
Three hundred ninety seven (397) of the applications were disapproved by the ERBs for the following reasons: that the applicant was a non-resident of the city/ municipality, that the said applicants used an assumed name and that the person is unknown in the municipality/ city. Due to time constraint, these applicants were not notified of the disapproval for them to timely file their respective petitions for inclusion in the CLOAV.
Reports from the Posts confirmed that compared to registration week of August 01 to 10, 2004 and September 21 to 30, 2004, the number of registrants jumped to six hundred forty three per cent (643%) showing the tendency of the Filipinos to act on the last hour.
By geographic area, the Asia- Pacific and Middle-East regions accounted for eighty six per cent (86%) of the total registrants with almost equal number of registrants for each region. Europe accounted for ten per cent (10%) while Americas generated a measly four per cent (4%) of the registrants. A profile of the registrants would show that most of these registrants are Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) employed as domestic helpers in the Asia-Pacific and skilled workers in the Middle East.
The CLOAV thereafter was posted on both the websites of the COMELEC and the DFA-OAVS sometime in February of 2004 and corresponding hard and soft copies were sent to the Posts.
I. Trainings of the Members of the Different Electoral Bodies:
The months from September to December 2003 saw the COAV formulating the guidelines on OAV Law and drafting election forms to be used in the electoral exercise much of which are based on the procedures adopted locally under the mandate of RAs 8189 (The Law on Continuing Registration) and 9189.
On 15 December 2003, COMELEC Resolution No. 6466 otherwise known as the Guidelines for the Special Ballot Reception and Custody Group (SBRCG) and the Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI) in relation to the 10 May 2004 National and Local Elections was promulgated. In preparation for the new role /task given to the members of the Foreign Service Corps, the Commission embarked on a series of trainings both here and abroad.
These trainings were initially held in Manila on 17 to 19 December 2003. During the whole month of January 2004, the COAV and OAVS went to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Los Angeles and Rome to train the members of the Foreign Service Corps posted abroad covering all major geographical regions. From 03 to 05 February 2004, COAV conducted another training in Manila for members of the Special Ballot Reception and Custody Group (SBRCGs) and Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEIs).
On 27 February 2004, COMELEC Resolution 6645 Guidelines for the Special Board of Canvassers (SBOC) in relation to the 10 May 2004 National and Local Elections was promulgated and the COAV conducted the training for the Chairmen of the SBOCs on 02 to 03 of March 2004.
These trainings were subsequently re-echoed to the members of the foreign service corps and the members of the Philippine community who would serve as election officers during the entire electoral process.
J. Shipment of Election Forms and Paraphernalia
The shipment of election forms and paraphernalia commenced on 15 February 2004. This included the shipment of non-accountable forms, supplies, ballot boxes, soft copies of the CLOAV, Book of Voters, the ballots and other voting forms.
Counting forms such as election returns, statement of votes and the certificate of canvass were shipped during the second week of April 2004.
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