28 September 2005 – Ambassador Virginia H. Benavidez of the Philippine Embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam, reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that she led Embassy officers and staff in attending a half-day echo training on the continuing system of registration for Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) at the Embassy Chancery on Saturday, 17 September 2005 designed to prepare Embassy personnel for the 11-month absentee voter registration period beginning 1 October 2005.

Ambassador Benavidez said that Embassy Information and Cultural Officer Heidi Gardose and Communications Officer Lynnette Ferranco shared with other officers and staff the relevant portions of the Training on the General Instructions for the System of Continuing Registration and Updated Data Capturing Machine Software that they attended in Manila last 15 – 17 June 2005.

The Ambassador said that the Consular staff of the Embassy would primarily undertake the registration function.

She added that starting January 2006, Embassy representatives will be conducting field registrations in the Tutong and Kuala Belait Districts as well as in several garment factories in the Brunei-Muara District as part of the collaborative effort to register as many Overseas Filipino Workers as possible.

Ambassador Benavidez has enjoined all Filipinos that have not yet registered as overseas absentee voters to visit the Embassy beginning 1 October 2005 to register.

“Voting is the right of every Filipino and should be exercised at every opportunity,” the Ambassador said, adding “through the passing of the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003, the Philippine Government has brought this opportunity within the reach of every Filipino abroad in recognition of the vital role that overseas Filipinos play in Philippine national development and the future of the country.”  END