25 March 2004 – Consul General Antonio P. Villamayor announced that seafarers registered as overseas
 absentee voters of the Philippine Consulate General in Osaka, Japan have already received their ballots since
 17 March 2004 by mail after the Post’s Special Ballot Reception and Custody Group released their ballots
 through Japan’s postal service. Japan is one of three countries, together with Canada and the United
 Kingdom, which will conduct overseas voting by mail.

 “We are making history, not only by conducting the first ever overseas absentee voting, but also by doing
 it for the first time via the postal system,” Villamayor said. “I hope that being part of history will be an additional incentive for Filipino seafarers in Western Japan to exercise their right of suffrage,” Villamayor added.

 Twenty-two seafarers have listed Western Japan as their address at the time of the 2004 elections,
 making them part of the 3,223 overseas absentee voters to be served by the Philippine Consulate General in
 Osaka. The sixty-day election period for seafarers started on 12 March , while land-based voters will get
 to cast their votes starting 11 April.

 “At the moment, we are almost done with validating whether all land-based registered voters have been
 issued ballots by the COMELEC,” said Villamayor. “What we are concentrating on at present is to spread the
 word among Filipino community organizations on what to expect in the mail and how to correctly accomplish the ballot and utilize the election forms,” he added.

 COMELEC-deputized officials in Osaka have engaged in information dissemination to raise the Filipino
 community’s awareness of the procedures involved in the overseas voting process. Vice-Consul Senen
 Mangalile, who chairs the consulate’s Special Ballot Reception and Custody Group, has gone on air several
 times in an Osaka FM station to appeal to Filipino listeners to send their votes. In the radio program
 “Tinig Pinoy” which is aired all over Japan’s Kansai region every Tuesday evening, Mangalile goes
 step-by-step with listeners on the do’s and don’ts of voting and counting.

 Consul General Villamayor has been talking to Filipinos in Catholic churches in Kobe City and Osaka
 and even in large gatherings such as bowling tournaments and intercity basketball championships.
 “We are even scheduling consular outreach missions this month in cities with big Filipino communities so
 that during the event we could explain to them how to send their votes,” Villamayor said. - END