Patriotic duty

The number of overseas absentee voters have doubled in the last few weeks as Philippine posts in other countries intensified their campaign to promote the election process in their home country.

Data sent to GMANews.TV by the office of the Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat show that as of March 24 a total of 29,413 had registered abroad to vote in the 2010 Philippine elections.

On March 9, only 15,234 overseas Filipinos had signed up since registration began on Feb. 1.

The United States has the largest number of registrants with 6,182.

China, which includes Hong Kong, was a distant second to the U.S. with 3,096 registrants, followed by Canada (2,022), the United Kingdom (1,681), and Singapore (1,425).

The Middle East, host to more than two million Filipino workers and dependents, is a big disappointment. Saudi Arabia, which has the biggest Filipino community after the U.S., reported only 704 registrants in its two registration centres in Riyadh and Jeddah.

Registration by centres showed Los Angeles, Calif. on top with 3,099, followed by Hong Kong with 2,888, Toronto with 1,712, and London with 1,681.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis, head of the DFA’s Special and Ocean Concerns, earlier said the figures were expected to improve as the government heightened its campaign for overseas voting.

"These figures will increase tremendously as the OAV registration activities in all Philippine Foreign Service Posts intensify in the coming days, weeks, and months," he said.Although the numbers seem to suggest an improved enthusiasm among Filipino overseas voters, the government has in fact failed to reach its target for the month.