Secretary of Foreign Affairs Blas F. Ople welcomed the Supreme Court ruling, issued on Friday, which upheld the right of Filipino immigrants abroad to register as voters under the Overseas Absentee Voting Act.  About a million qualified Filipino immigrants are expected to be affected by this ruling.

It is estimated that there are 7.6 million Filipinos overseas, about a third of whom are projected to participate in the initial implementation of this landmark law.

He also expressed relief over the High Court’s timely issuance of its decision which struck down one provision of the OAV Act as unconstitutional -- that which gives the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee the right to change or approve the law’s implementing rules and regulations drafted by the Commission on Elections.  In the absence of this decision, the Secretary said that the DFA had to undertake preparations notwithstanding the unresolved issue on the IRR.  It had no choice but to do so in the light of the upcoming registration of overseas absentee voters beginning 1 August 2003.

With the issues resolved, the Secretary said that all efforts can now be concentrated on the preparations for the full implementation of the OAV Act.

The Secretary also announced that on 17 July 2003, the COMELEC and the DFA will jointly conduct a “Training on the Use of Data Capture Machines” at the DFA.  Around 84 representatives of Philippine embassies and consulates and foreign service establishments and 44 DFA personnel scheduled to be deployed overseas are expected to attend the training program.  “This is part of the effort to prepare our personnel extensively for their new mandate and added responsibilities”, he said.  The data capture machines will be used for the first time in the conduct of registration.  Three hundred seventy five machines shall be deployed to the embassies and consulates by the third week of July.

Secretary Ople said that in the initial year of OAV implementation, the COMELEC, with the assistance of the DFA, will be introducing new technologies and approaches never previously been tried in Philippine elections.  “Absentee voting itself is a new reality in Philippine elections that can hopefully contribute to helping achieve  our country’s vision of clean and honest elections for the years to come”, he said.

Earlier, the DFA and COMELEC conducted a series of Regional Training Programs on the OAV Act for about 220 officers of the Philippine embassies and consulates.  The training covered the guidelines, procedures, and system for the conduct of the registration and the legal policies on OAV implementation.

The DFA is one of the primary agencies called by the OAV Act to assist COMELEC because of the effective presence of the DFA overseas – the situs of the enforcement of the OAV Act.