Registered overseas absentee voters (OAV) will be able to sign up for the “anti-pork barrel” initiative, said Migrante-Middle East (M-ME), an overseas Filipino group. The “pork barrel” system is an allocation in the national budget whose release is determined by members of the legislature supposedly for local government projects. A substantial part of the fund has reportedly been diverted by unscrupulous politicians into their own pockets.

“Overseas Filipino workers who are eligible OAVs can sign up for the People’s Initiative (PI) bill that seeks to end a system copied from the US,” John Leonard Monterona, M-ME’s Riyadh-based regional coordinator, told Arab News recently.