MANILA, 25 July — Several former migrant workers here yesterday said President Gloria Arroyo, in her State of the Nation Address Monday, made two promises that Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) ought to closely monitor.
One was the setting up of a provident fund for overseas Filipinos; the second was for enactment of an absentee voting law.
"... I ask Congress to enact a law giving overseas Filipinos, who continue to play a critical role in the country's economic and social stability, the right to vote," the president said in her speech at the opening of the 12th Philippine Congress.
Arroyo's speech gave no details on the provident fund proposal but as is usually practiced by private companies, a member contributes a certain amount to the fund and the company matches that amount.
When the member-employee is separated from the company for any reason, he would get all his contributions plus that of the company.
As for the second promise, once an absentee voting law is enacted, OFWs can participate in Philippine national elections at their place of work.
Voting rights for expatriates is limited by the Philippine Constitution to the election of presidents, vice presidents, senators and party-list representatives.
Because former Presidents Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada, as well as other Philippine politicians, have failed to deliver on their pledge to have the absentee voting law enacted, Arroyo's own promise is being met with skepticism from some quarters.
But the fact that she included them at all in the long list of targets she had made for the country in her speech was enough to elate some representatives of OFWs.
"I think there's nothing wrong with setting targets. It's good, it sets direction," said Charlie Patriarca, prime mover of the Riyadh OFW Congress, in an interview with Arab News.
Former OFW sectoral representative Isidro Aligada, who once worked in Jeddah, said Filipinos "must help the president fulfill her vision for the people. We cannot just sit and watch."
In a separate interview, Eugene del Rosario, who heads the new group Kasapi-Philippines, took a cynical stand on the various promises of Arroyo, most of which were centered on an ambitious four-point program to fight mass poverty in the country.
"Politicians are all the same full of promises. But we'll see. After all she's been in power only for six months. Let her work do the talking," del Rosario said.
Del Rosario noted that OFWs will definitely welcome President Arroyo's call on Congress to enact an absentee voting law that would eventually give more than six million Filipino workers abroad the right to vote in Philippine national elections.
But he expressed doubts on whether the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Department Foreign Affairs (DFA) can immediately come up with the fraud-proof mechanisms on how to implement the measure.
"But who knows, if the mechanisms are properly done, it will pave the way for the approval of the bill." said del Rosario, noting that many lawmakers in the past opposed the measure because they were not satisfied with its mechanisms.
Del Rosario said OFWs should not get tired writing their congressmen, senators, and the president to push for what should have long been accorded to expatriates workers.
In drafting those absentee voting mechanisms, Aligada volunteered that the proposed OFW Oversight Center in the House of Representatives, which Speaker Jose de Venecia promised to establish, would do the job.
Patriarca, on the other hand, belittled the proposed provident fund.
While the proposed fund could serve as the Social Security System (SSS) fund for OFWs and their dependents, Patriarca said it would not be enough to assure the smooth "reintegration" of returning OFWs who they quit their jobs abroad.
"The priority of the government should be to prepare for the time the OFW will return to the country. All the present economic welfare fund and benefits for returning OFWs are lacking," Patriarca said.
He recalled that former President Ramos announced the creation of the Kabuhayan 2000 during a visit to Riyadh, "but nothing happened."
The Kabuhayan 2000 was supposed to be a livelihood fund for returning OFWs. "But OFWs are really forgotten now. The government's focus is on deployment, but the of the OFWs' return has been overlooked," he lamented.
"Something has to be done because the OFWs will just join the ranks of the unemployed when they return to the Philippines. And they cannot compete with the new graduates who are young," Patriarca added.
Patriarca said "the only way they can compete is by helping them set up business ventures."
