Legarda, Villar top Hong Kong mock election

It’s 10-1-1 in favor of Genuine Opposition senatorial candidates in an Easter Sunday mock election among overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong, with former Sen. Loren Legarda and Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. leading the pack. From the 11-man opposition slate, only detained Navy officer Antonio Trillanes did not make it to the “Magic 12." Re-electionist Sen. Ralph Recto was the lone Team Unity (TU) contender who got in and placed 9th, while Independent bet Francis Pangilinan ranked fourth. Legarda, the consistent top placed in previous popularity surveys among senatorial contenders, got the highest number of 594 votes, representing 85.2 percent, of almost 700 OFWs who participated in the activity held at Chater Road in Central on Easter Sunday. Villar came in second with 504 votes, or 72.3 percent, while Aquilino “Koko" Pimentel III ranked third with 463 votes, or 66.4 percent. Pangilinan placed fourth with 455 votes (65.3%); Alan Peter Cayetano (GO), 447 votes (64.1%); Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III (GO), 369 (52.9%); Panfilo Lacson (GO), 347 (49.8%); Sonia Roco (GO), 345 (49.5%); Ralph Recto, the sole Team Unity member in the Magic 12, placed 9th with 325 votes (46.6%); John Osmena (GO), 319 votes (45.8%); Nikki Coseteng (GO), 312 votes (44.8%), and Francis Escudero (GO), 284 votes (40.7%). The United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-Migrante-HK) organized the mock election a week before the 30-day absentee balloting period as a way to gauge the sentiments of qualified voters in the territory in the senatorial election and to push the migrant's agenda into the candidates' legislative platform. Eman Villanueva, the group’s secretary general, said Migrante International will conduct similar exercise in other countries like Taiwan and Korea through its affiliate organizations. The organizers expected 1,000 participants to the mock election, but it was nonetheless considered a success with 700 turn out. “The results of the mock election do not only reflect the choice of OFWs but will also have significant potential impacts to the vote turnout in the Philippines," Villanueva said. “We are actively campaigning for OFWs, registered and not, to urge their families and relatives in the Philippines to pick candidates who carry the concerns of migrant workers. Through this, the migrant’s votes will increase several folds," he averred. Hong Kong has the second highest number of registered overseas absentee voters with 98,148, next to Saudi Arabia with 127,947. "We shall marshall the strength of the OFWs and our families to send our agenda to the Philippine Congress and pressure other officials to finally take seriously the issues of migrant workers and our empowerment, Villanueva said in a statement sent to GMANews.TV. “Through this, we challenge the senatorial candidates who made it to the magic 12 to prove their worth to us OFWs and our families and maintain our confidence in them by making concrete their platform to migrant workers. As for those who did not make it, this should serve as a wake up call that they should shape up their campaign for us to consider their candidacy," Villanueva said. He said many OFWs in Hong Kong were dismayed with the seeming lack of concern of the senatorial candidates to the issues confronting overseas Filipinos, particularly the deployment guidelines issued by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) for domestic workers. "The migrant’s agenda that includes removal of unnecessary government charges, improved onsite protection to OFWs, and the resolution of various anomalies in the OWWA should be brought to the Senate and should be acted upon," Villanueva said. Organized workers’ groups abroad have been seeking the scrapping of the POEA guidelines that doubled the minimum monthly salary of domestic helpers, raised the minimum age requirement from 21 to 23 and mandated pre-departure skills training and language proficiency tests. The total number of overseas absentee voters this year around the world is 504,122, up 361,457 in 2004. Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr., who is in charge of the poll body’s overseas absentee voting committee, earlier estimated that more than 100,000 Filipino migrant workers who returned home or moved to another host country since 2004 may not be able to cast their votes in the upcoming elections. The number, he said, represents part of the first batch of 361,457 voters abroad who registered for the 2004 elections. This comprises 20 percent of some 504,122 OFWs who had registered for overseas absentee voting for this year’s election. OFW groups such as UNIFIL-HK, blamed raised fears that a significant number of OAVs would be disenfranchised owing to the lack of efforts of the government to promote the elections among OFWs, educate migrant workers on the process of registration and voting, and institutionalize mechanisms to resolve situations prohibiting OFWs from voting, such as limited voting centers. -GMANews.TV