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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
THERE are millions of former
Filipinos in the United States but not even a fourth have taken
advantage of the country’s Dual Citizenship Law that would enable
them to vote in the midterm elections in May.
Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. of
the Commission on Elections, who had just arrived from a two-week
trip to the US, lamented the low turnout Thursday even as some
500,000 Filipino absentee voters around the world prepare to cast
their vote starting Saturday.
The overseas Filipinos have until
May 14 to choose 12 senators and a party-list group.
“This is very disappointing.
Although we have millions of Filipinos in the Los Angeles, we have
only about 600 registered voters there,” Abalos told a press
conference.
In San Francisco, which like the
LA has a big Filipino community, there are only around 750
registered voters. In Hawaii, there are only 158, Abalos said.
He blamed the poor turnout of
absentee registrants in the US to a lackluster information campaign.
The information campaign is
required by the Citizenship Retention and Reacquisition Act
(Republic Act 9225), which was enacted in 2003.
The Bureau of Immigration is
supposed to implement RA 9225 while the Department of Foreign
Affairs is in charge of the information drive.
BI records show that 26,000 have
reacquired Filipino citizenship since the bureau began processing
applications in April 2004. Of the number, 12,000 were processed at
the BI main office in Intramuros, and the rest in Philippine
consulates abroad.
Under the revised rules,
applicants for dual citizenship are no longer required to submit
birth certificates from the National Statistics Office to prove that
they were natural-born.
Instead, an applicant may submit
his birth certificate from the local civil registrars of his
birthplace and other documents, such as his old Philippine passport,
voter’s affidavit and marriage contract.
Abalos said that based on his
interaction with Filipino communities, it appeared that many of them
did not know about the dual citizenship law.
“They do not know that dual
citizens are exempted on double taxation. There’s nothing to
fear,” Abalos said. “Others were thinking that if they take
their oath as Filipino citizenship, they would be renouncing their
American citizenship.” “It is the reason why former Filipinos in
the US don’t bother to apply for dual citizenship, resulting in
the low turnout of registrants for absentee voting,” he said.
The overseas absentee voting was
first implemented during the 2004 elections.
For the midterm elections,
overseas absentee voters may start casting their votes on any day
from April 14 (host country time) until 3 p.m. of May 14 (Philippine
time).
OFWs who are far from Philippine
Embassy or consular offices, where the voting is done, may vote by
mail.
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