Fil-Ams laud dual citizenship, voting bills

HONOLULU (via PLDT) — President Arroyo, en route to Los Cabos, Mexico to attend this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit, cheered 170,000 Filipino immigrants upon arrival here yesterday morning for a one-day stopover when she announced the recent approval by Congress of the absentee voting and dual citizenship bills.

The twin measures would grant overseas Filipino workers and other expatriate Filipinos the right to vote and enjoy Filipino citizenship while not losing their immigrant status in their host countries.

The Chief Executive promised to immediately sign the bills into law in recognition of the vital contribution of overseas Filipino workers to the national economy. She said OFWs remitted to the Philippines a total of $6 billion in 2001 alone.

"This year, in the first six months, we got $4 billion," she said, noting that while only one-third of overseas Filipinos are based in the US, they accounted for two-thirds of the remittances.

"I am thanking them for their support in helping me improve and develop the Philippine economy," the President said.

Hawaii Gov. Benjamin Cayetano, who is of Filipino descent, led the Filipino-American community in welcoming Mrs. Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, at the Honolulu International Airport.

The President and her official party were later treated to a combination of typical Hawaiian "aloha" welcome rites of orchid leis and warm hospitality at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel where they were billeted.

In her remarks at the Filipino community center in Waipahu, Mrs. Arroyo told Filipino elders, consisting mostly of World War II veterans who are the first "sacadas" who migrated to Hawaii to work in pineapple plantations, that she intends to sign the two bills into law once Congress sends them to her for enactment.

"I will ask the Filipinos here to join me in praying that the differing provisions of the Senate and House versions will be ironed out soon in the bicameral conference committee so that it can be implemented soon," the President said.

With regards to the budget needed for the implementation of the absentee voting bill in the May 2004 elections, she bared that no less than leaders of OFW communities in the US like Loida Nicholas and Alex Esclamado informed her in Manila that their groups would offer financial support.

She said this could be done through a system of deputizing election watchdogs like the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel).

"Leaders of the Filipino community here are willing to fund their own Namfrel-type counters. So, much of the projected expenses they said can be borne by the Filipino community," she said.

However, it is up to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to work out this mechanism in order to implement the law.

"Then it will be the Comelec, I suppose, who can make a judgment on what is allowed and not allowed by law. The role that they’re going to play, while not specifically as Comelec officials, is one similar to Namfrel which is deputized by the Comelec in some functions to reduce some expenses," she clarified.