I call on the country’s foreign service officers abroad to intensify their efforts to encourage eligible Overseas Filipinos Workers to vote and exercise their right of suffrage during the May 10 elections.

There is still enough time for Philippine embassy officials abroad to step up the overseas voters information campaign to improve on the sixteen percent (16%) voter turnout in the 2007 elections.

Officials and personnel of the Commission on Elections, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Labor and Employment and other government offices based in Philippine embassies abroard can very well promote absentee voting among OFWs.

Just to refresh your memory, dear readers, I was Senate President when the Overseas Absentee Voting Act was signed into law. I was also the principal author of the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003 that granted dual citizenship to overseas Filipinos. These two laws are very close to my heart, so to speak.

The Comelec and other government offices abroad should at least aim to equal the 65 percent voter turnout in the 2004 elections by going full-blast in their information drive.

After nine years of maladministration and mismanagement under President Arroyo, the Filipinos deserve a better government and our countrymen overseas have as much stake and say—as us resident Filipinos—in the shaping our country’s future and must be given every opportunity to exercise their right of suffrage.

It would be very unfortunate if our registered overseas voters cannot cast their vote due to lack of information and inefficiencies in the implementation of the law.

The concerned government offices should not be hampered in their voter participation efforts by budgetary constraints. Aside from the customary and traditional media-driven information campaign, our government officials can innovate by using available technology, such as the Internet, email, social networking sites, and even YouTube.

Overseas absentee voters have between April 10 to 6 p.m. of May 10 to vote for their choices for president, vice president, senators, and party list. Based on available data, of the 8.1 million Filipinos overseas workers and residents, 589,830 are registered and eligible to vote for this year’s national elections. One hundred two embassies and consulates will have postal voting and 70 diplomatic posts will have personal voting. Overseas voters in Hong Kong and Singapore will be using the automated election system.