MANILA, 2 April 2004 — Filipinos abroad will travel 800 kilometers or more across deserts to vote for a president who could protect them when they lose their jobs or when they opt to go home for good.

So said Rafael T. David, a Filipino community leader in Yanbu, as he laid down a platform of governance presidential candidates should work on to get the more than 357,782 votes of overseas Filipinos.

“What we need is a government that will protect — and not exploit — us, David said. “A government that can negotiate in equal footing with the host country and a government that would look at us as Filipinos and not just the source of billion-dollar remittances.”

David spoke during a forum titled “Overseas Filipinos and the 2004 Elections” on Friday organized by the non-government OFW Journalism Consortium, Inc. and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES)-Philippines. He was speaking, he said, for some approximately 900,000 documented and undocumented OFWs in Saudi Arabia.

Around 93,000 found time to register, or only about 10 percent of the total probable voters, David said in a prepared speech. We are participating in this election despite the hardships because “we are willing to gamble just to have our concerns and aspirations heard.”

This is the first time that Filipinos are given a chance to vote while still working or living overseas through the Absentee Voting law or Republic Act 9189. Seafarers began sending their votes for the May elections on March 12. Land-based OFWs, estimated at over 3 million of a total 7.4 million Filipinos abroad, will vote on April 11, a month before the May 10 polls.

During that forum, other experts also spoke on the country’s labor export phenomenon that began in 1974.

Jorge Tigno, professor of political science at the University of the Philippines, spoke on the political participation of overseas Filipinos in a troubled Philippine democracy. Fernando Aldaba, chair of the Department of Economics of the Ateneo de Manila University, analyzed the economics and politics of overseas migration.

Ellene Sana, executive director of the non-government Center for Migrant Advocacy — Philippines, revealed civil society’s lobby for RA 9189 (Overseas Absentee Voting Act) and monitored its implementation. Catherine Maceda, head of the Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat of the Department of Foreign Affairs, spoke on government’s implementation of the absentee voting law.

Ballot Boxes

Maceda yesterday also reassured overseas Filipinos that their votes will be adequately protected despite the use of cardboard ballot boxes.

“It is not in the material of the ballot box but in the security procedures to be made... It will be hard to cheat,” she said ,explaining that minutes will be taken of the counting of votes — the serial numbers of ballots to be opened, the time they are opened and the vote itself, will be recorded and read out during this procedure.

Maceda said that all the security precautions in place make the whole exercise seem “over-acting” with regard to ensuring the safety of the ballots.

The Commission on Elections is using ballot boxes made of carton and not metal boxes for overseas voting for economic and practical reasons. Shipping thousands of these neatly folded cartons overseas makes them lighter, easier to ship, and more cost effective.

The boxes can later be assembled and then sealed with security tape.

Another difference is that each ballot will be individually sealed in numbered A4 brown envelopes which will be opened only during counting.

Maceda said one other security measure is that there will be two election bodies for absentee voting, one to take custody of the ballots and another to supervise the counting. She said that in local voting, these processes are overseen by only one person.

Overseas Filipinos will be allowed to vote in national elections for the first time this may by virtue of Republic Act 9189, the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003.

Voting for seafarers began last March 11 and will end on May 10 while voting for land-based workers will commence on April 11 and will last for one month until May 10. Counting of ballots will be done at the posts and will be simultaneous with counting of ballots in the Philippines.