MANILA, April 4 (PNA) –The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is coordinating with private companies such as manning and recruitment agencies where they will put up registration centers for the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
According to Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez they will be working with private sector organizations in Metro Manila to establish registration centers to make it more convenient for the Filipino workers who are scheduled to work abroad to register in the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) from the host countries where they are employed.
“What we will be working right now is to open more registration centers in private offices such as hiring and manning agencies…we are preparing a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to sign it with them,” he said in an earlier interview.
Jimenez said, “At present that is the focus of Comelec in Manila to make sure that we can register as many as possible before the October 30 deadline.”
He said that they were targeting an additional one million OAV registrants.
The poll body official noted that they also have existing registration centers in all international airports in the country to encourage OFWs to register.
“Tuloy pa din ang campaign syempre ng partner natin sa DFA. Dito naman sa local we are still working to open more regular centers. Lahat ng Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) meron na tayo registration booths partner tayo ibang ahensya para sa Pre-Departure Registration and Orientation Seminars (PDOS) nila kasama ‘yung registration doon,” Jimenez said.
He also said that there would be no problem if the OFW was registered in the province, what he/she has to do is toapply for transfer to the OAV or to the list of Office of the OAV, however, the registrant should be a registered voter in the province where he came from.
“Kung hindi ka registered voter you either register for the first time in overseas in which case hihingan ka ng address kung san ka nakatira abroad or transfer ka lang. Transfer not geographically but transfer from one domestic list to the international or ‘yung overseas,” he said.
Aside from private organizations, the Comelec will also coordinate with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Commission on Filipino Overseas for this endeavor. (PNA)