Pinoys' 'mañana' habit blamed for poor OAV registration turnout

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine government failed to meet the first month target of overseas absentee voting (OAV) registrants owing to the Filipinos’ infamous "hasta mañana" habit, according to an official from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Ambassador Nestor Padalhin of the DFA’s OAV Secretariat said the Filipinos’ inherent procrastinating nature caused the poor turnout. “The Filipinos’ [hasta] mañana habit is clearly manifested in the low turnout," Padalhin told GMANews.TV on Tuesday. As of March 9, only 15, 234 overseas Filipinos registered for the OAV since the registration began last Feb. 1. The government’s target is one million overseas registrants by 2010, Padalhin said. To reach that target, the government needs at least 166,666 registrants every month until the OAV registration ends on August 31. Filipinos in North and South America made up a bulk of the registrants. Some 4, 236 registered to participate in the 2010 Philippine elections. About 1,313 Filipinos in Los Angeles in California, which has the largest population of Filipinos outside the Philippines, registered to vote. Padalhin reported that 1,661 outbound Filipinos registered at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, while 1,752 filed their OAV registration at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. Meanwhile, 3, 606 Filipinos in Asia and Pacific region registered; 2,714 from Europe; while 1,261 registered from the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, the top destination of Filipino workers where some 1 million currently stay, registered only 334 Filipinos for the OAV. Padalhin, however, attributed the low turnout in the Middle Eastern kingdom to the existence of only one data-capturing machine in Riyadh that measures the biometrics required in OAV registration. The city with the most OAV registrants is Hong Kong with 1,717, while the city with the least Filipinos registering for the overseas voting is Barcelona in Spain with 299. Information campaign Padalhin said they have noted the poor turnout of OAV registrants and would immediately start measures to heighten awareness among overseas Filipinos. He said the government has not been remiss in performing its duties to inform the public to register and vote. Different migrant groups have also done their share to disseminate information about the OAV throughout the Filipino community overseas. There are 8.7 million overseas Filipinos, according to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, of including 4.1 million contractual workers and about 900,000 are undocumented migrants. Alienated The essential principles of electoral participation as well as equality before the law were held by Filipino migrants in high esteem, said a recently published study by German researchers Dr. Christl Kessler and Stefan Rother. But when they asked 1,000 overseas Filipino worker (OFW) returnees from the Middle East and East Asia, they discovered that while migrants are determined to exercise their democratic right to vote, they also become more critical of the Philippines after having been abroad. Filipinos who come from states, which the Freedom House Index identifies as democratic – Japan and Taiwan – and authoritarian – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong - often feel alienated. “I myself am a Filipino, but I don’t give a damn about this country," a 24-year-old respondent from Dubai was quoted as saying. Migration changes the yardstick on which output performance is measured, according to the study. “They think the nation is run by a powerful few and they cannot do much about whoever people vote for since it does not lead to change," it added. - GMANews.TV