UAE’s Filipino expats urged to vote ahead of next week’s deadline

ABU DHABI // Filipino expatriates are being urged to vote before time runs out in a week.

“I call on all registered Filipino overseas voters to make your trip to the voting precincts as soon as you can,” said Rafael Seguis, Philippines’ foreign affairs undersecretary and overseas voting secretariat chairman at Manila’s department of foreign affairs (DFA)

“Exercising your right of suffrage is as important, if not more important than the candidates you choose to vote for. Let us not sacrifice the principles and the values we stand for.”

Registered overseas absentee voters have until Monday to cast their votes in the presidential election.

Johary Bio, 42, said his job at a logistics company in Abu Dhabi prevented him from voting early.

“I asked my boss if can take a day off today,” he said. “I think it’s important to vote for change. Every vote counts.”

Polls for overseas voters opened on April 9 and will remain open until May 9, election day in the Philippines.

“I hope they won’t wait until the last three days to vote,” Constancio Vingno Jr, the Philippine ambassador to the UAE, said on Monday. “We’re anticipating long queues on the last day of voting.”

The embassy has extended voting hours from 8am to 8pm until Sunday, instead of the previous 9am to 5pm. On May 9, voting will be from 5am to 1pm.

Filipinos will be choosing their country’s next president, vice president, 12 senators and one-party list representative.

Voting at the consulate is from 8am to 9pm daily until Sunday to enable many voters to participate.

Paul Raymond Cortes, the consul general in Dubai, has called a town hall meeting at 7pm on Tuesday to discuss issues affecting the community.

“The most pressing issue is overseas absentee voting and how to lure Filipinos to vote and play a role in nation-building,” he said.

“We’re interested to get the comments and recommendations from Filipinos on how they think we can further increase the voter turnout.”

But Mr Seguis said he was convinced the Philippine embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai would meet their targets.

“It looks like there is still a chance that both Abu Dhabi and Dubai will be able to reach a 50 per cent turnout in the next 7 days,” he said.

By May 1, 16, 265 of the 72,661 voters in Abu Dhabi had cast their votes, representing a 22 per cent voter turnout, according to the DFA’s overseas voting secretariat.

Of the 122,953 registered voters in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, 25,235 had voted at the consulate in Dubai.

“I’m not satisfied with the numbers,” Mr Cortes said.

“There are over 97,000 who have not yet voted. There must be a reason why the third presidential debate featured Dubai. It means the candidates are keen to listen to overseas Filipinos in Dubai, find out exactly what concerns them, and how they could help.”

Rowena Daquipil, vice-consul at the embassy, said she wondered what is preventing Filipinos in Abu Dhabi from voting.

“I really don’t know whey they leave it late to vote,” she said. “Perhaps they’re undecided at this point. Or it may be the ‘last-minute mentality’ of many Filipinos.”

A group of Filipino civil engineers offered to provided free transport to the embassy on Friday for voters coming from Ruwais.

“We can only do so much,” Ms Daquipil said. “But it’s really up to them if they would like to vote.”

rruiz@thenational.ae