MANILA, 30 Sept. — Campaigners for absentee voting are calling on Filipinos all over the globe to join a partial remittance boycott next month if Philippine lawmakers continue to ignore the absentee voting bill (AVB) before the end of October.
Marvin Bionat, president of the Global Coalition for the Political Empowerment of Overseas Filipinos (Empower-USA), said the said the partial remittance boycott is only one of the four options that OFWs abroad will employ to get the AVB enacted into law.
The call comes as some members of the House of Representatives are embroiled in a "nonsensical" quarrel with the Department of Justice and Supreme Court over the extradition case of Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez.
A number of congressmen, notably Neptali Gonzales Jr. of Mandaluyong, Francis Escudero of Sorsogon, and Didagen Dilagalen of Maguindanao, are threatening to impeach the Supreme Court justices who have voted to order the cancellation of Jimenez's temporary liberty.
Jimenez is wanted in the United States for tax fraud and illegal campaign contribution and some of his colleagues say his extradition would be a violation of his constitutional rights as a Filipino citizens.
This sudden invocation of the Bill of Rights by the congressman for wealthy Mark Jimenez has outraged many overseas Filipinos, whose right to vote is being denied by the same congressmen.
In a press statement, Bionat said Empower-USA said the latest developments only shows the need to step up pressure on Manila.
He said Empower-USA is also calling for a holiday boycott for Filipinos overseas, is blacklisting politicians working against the bill, and is requesting foreign aid agencies not to lend money to the Philippines.
Bionat said the OFWs will "use their ultimate economic leverage to bring the absentee voting issue to the fore and use their remittance as a weapon to urge Congress to get its act together!"
"This is not a call to completely stop sending funds to our families back home. We cannot punish our families for the failure of politicians," Bionat said.
Rather, he explained it is a campaign to encourage overseas Filipinos to remit funds via non-government or non-bank channels since around 70 percent of all remittances go through banks, which are monitored and taxed by the government.
In addition, he said overseas Filipinos are being encouraged to send home packages instead of the usual cash gifts.
The campaign is being supported by other OFWs and is being done in conjunction with a letter campaign by the Kapisanan ng Mga Kamag-Anak ng Migranteng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kakammpi).
Kakammpi, a non-governmental organization which helps Filipino migrants and their families, launched "Tutukan Si Congressman," a letter campaign by families of overseas Filipinos.
Ellene Sana, Kakammpi's advocacy officer, said: "We will request the families and friends of overseas Filipinos to address these letters to their respective congress representatives." She said her group will collect them back and then distribute the letters to the lawmakers concerned.
Bionat also said they are asking all OFs and OFWs to "make a hard but powerful choice to show solidarity in our now epic struggle for political inclusion: if by the end of October the AVB is still rotting on the congressional shelf, let us suspend unnecessary visits to the Philippines until absentee voting becomes law!" "As much as we like to be home, we will dramatize the gravity of Congress's colossal failure by staying away from a country whose government has continued to treat 7 to 8 million of its citizens as political outcasts," Bionat said.
In their call to action, the overseas Filipinos "ask all our families in the Philippines to show sympathy to our just cause and actively support politicians who push for immediate passage, and blacklist and boot out of office those who directly or passively oppose absentee voting!"
"Now we appeal to members of the international community — including human rights organizations, aid agencies, foreign governments, and transnational businesses with conscience — to exert all their moral, political, and economic sway in our fight for a basic human right," the statement said.
Bionat warned that this partial remittance boycott could become a total remittance boycott if before Congress again goes on recess on Oct. 24 the AVB has still not been passed.
"We will designate a specific period at which time we will completely refrain from remitting funds," Bionat said.
He said there were "arguments to launch a complete remittance boycott for one month at a time (something very different from remittance curtailment called for."
This call to action, he said complements all the other initiatives that overseas Filipinos have undertaken such as periodic advocacy visits and even face-to-face lobbying.
After all, Bionat said the right to vote is a fundamental human right that the Philippine Congress, by its inaction, has long denied 7 to 8 million overseas Filipinos. Bionat said this right was guaranteed by the Philippine Constitution and "is not a particularly complicated process; some 49 countries (including neighboring Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand) have allowed overseas voting for their citizens."
"For members of the Philippine Congress to claim that after 15 years they are still studying the issues is a monumental case of collective incompetence. The inexcusable delay should be remedied by diligent study and immediate action, not by the rehashing of old and resolved issues and dilatory quorum checks," the statement read.
And "as "economic saviors" remitting at least $7 billion a year (up to $14 billion according to other estimates), overseas Filipinos have more than earned the right to have a say in the country's affairs."
