JEDDAH, 4 April 2004 — Community leaders in Jeddah have formed their own group to campaign for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her team in the upcoming Philippine elections.
Launched on Friday at the La Parilla Restaurant, the group calling themselves OFW 4 GMA (Overseas Filipino Workers for Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) was attended by leaders representing various organizations in Jeddah, including leaders of the Kasapi Congress and the United Bangsaranao Council (UBC).
Elected as officers of the group were Ben Garcia, chairman; Rudy Dianalan, president; Romulo Bani, vice president; Gil Manese, secretary and overall coordinator; and Juhari Usman, PRO.
Garcia, in his message to those gathered, said: “Let’s unite for the good of our country. Arroyo’s platform is tried and tested, so let’s support her so that she could continue with whatever she had already started. Let’s not gamble our future, be wise, vote Arroyo.”
Perla Vega, founder of the Mother Movement and a staunch Arroyo supporter, said: “The voters should not only think intelligently but logically and be more objective in choosing the country’s next president.”
“In terms of decision-making and qualifications, no one from among the other presidential candidates could beat Arroyo,” she added.
The delegation from UBC, which claims more than a thousand members in the Western Region alone, was headed by incoming Sheikh Ali Ditucalan, outgoing Sheikh Usman Islao, and secretary-general Mitchel H. Omar.
“We are all here to support President Arroyo for another term in office,” Omar said. “We sincerely believe in her capability, sincerity and strength, an important traits of a true leader.”
He admitted that some of their members were die-hard follower of action movie “king” Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) (FPJ), Arroyo’s toughest rival.
However, he said, many of them have realized that while FPJ is popular, he lacks the necessary qualification to be a leader. “That is why we are here to give our full support for GMA,” he said.
From April 11 until May 10, close to 400,000 overseas Filipinos, including more than 93,000 registered voters in the Kingdom, will be casting their votes in the first Philippine absentee voting exercise abroad.
They will vote for the next Philippine president, vice president, 12 senators and a party-list representative.
Filipino community groups in the Eastern, Central and Western regions of Saudi Arabia have earlier formed the Gabay OFW to participate in the party-list polls in a bid to get at least a seat in the Philippine House of Representatives.
A voter is allowed to vote for only one party-list, which makes it an uphill struggle for Gabay OFW considering that there are more than 100 groups contesting the 50 or so seats reserved for sectoral groups in the House.
But Gabay leaders are hoping to do the trick with the help not only of the registered overseas Filipinos but also those who are not registered. “We ask everyone to campaign among our loved ones at home to vote Gabay so that we will have our very own representative in Congress,” said Rudy Dianalan, the president of the Gabay chapter in Jeddah.