Advocates for House Bill 2036, the bill amending to the Overseas Absentee Voting Act (Republic Act 9189) will have their hands full pushing for this bill’s passage when congress resumes sessions on April 21 especially since it has been unceremoniously dumped on the collective laps of the congressmen after a hearing in early March.

The bill was passed to the plenary after a joint hearing of House committees co-chaired by Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. (Suffrage and Electoral Reforms) and Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Foreign Affairs) last February 26.

Soon after, congress went into recess.

The approved bill was a consolidation of HB 2046 filed by Locsin and Cuenco and of HB 3209 filed by Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros, Zamboanga City Rep. Maria Isabelle Climaco, Valenzuela City Rep. Rex Gatchalian and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez.

Locsin stipulated that the authors of HB 3209, a related bill that will scrap the required affidavit of intention to return which is a requirement for immigrants to be able to vote, have to defend their position before the plenary.

The committees were initially convened for the consideration of measures seeking to amend RA 9189, which Locsin wanted to make sure would improve the turnout of overseas absentee voters.

Turnout for the initial implementation of the Overseas Absentee Voting Act during the national elections in May 2004 registered a high of 65 percent. Numbers, however, fell to 16.21 percent during the May 2007 senatorial election.

“It is in this context and in the light of the need for amendments that this bill is put forward so that by the next national electoral exercise, more of our brothers and sisters abroad can exercise their universal right of suffrage,” Hontiveros, Gatchalian, Climaco and Rodriguez said in a joint statement when they filed HB 3209.  Julie Javellana-Santos, abs-cbnNEWS.com