This is long overdue.

Journalists and other members of the media who cover the elections, especially Election Day, should be able to vote through absentee voting.

Normally, reporters start their work on the eve of the elections and have no time to join their families in going to their polling precinct to cast votes. The irony is that they report about the elections where they have no direct participation as voters. Perhaps the only time they can vote is when they actually run for office because by then they have time to do so. But working journalists don’t have such opportunity.

If approved, thousands of reporters, photojournalists, cameramen and media workers (especially those in the newsrooms and in production) may soon be able to exercise their right to vote.

Incidentally, Filipino journalists who work and live abroad are better off because they can vote as OFWs.

I hope the media organizations in the country like the NUJP and CMFR would attend the Commission on Elections’ public consultation today and speak out for journalists’ right to vote.

(While we’re at it, maybe the Comelec could also contemplate granting the same privilege to doctors, nurses and hospital workers. The police, military, journalists and those in the medical professions deserve such a privilege.)