OFWs in HK hold mock polls

HONG KONG – Close to 1,500 overseas Filipino workers went out and voted in mock elections at Charter Road here yesterday as workers gathered to enjoy their regular Sunday off.

United Filipinos in Hong Kong president Eman Villanueva said the mock elections were meant to gather the sentiments of migrant Filipinos here regarding their preferred senatorial candidates and serve as a precursor to the 2007 elections.

The mock elections were also meant to provide OFWs with much-needed basic voters’ education through a dry run of the Overseas Absentee Voting procedures.

"This may be a mock election, but the results of the exercise will have a sure impact on the votes of the OFWs and our families," Villanueva said. "Through the mock polls, we hope that the senatorial candidates will realize the importance of OFWs as part of the electorate."

As of press time, the canvassing of the mock polls was not yet finished.

The actual overseas voting here begins on April 14 and continues until election day back home on May 14.

JIL endorses 3 GO bets

Meanwhile, three senatorial candidates of the Genuine Opposition (GO) were "blessed" and endorsed yesterday by the Jesus Is Lord (JIL) movement, which said it can corner about two to three-million votes from its members here, in the Philippines and in other countries.

Senate President Manuel Villar Jr., Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano and Sen. Panfilo Lacson attended two JIL "resurrection" or Easter Sunday services at the JIL Worship Center on May Cheong Street corner Wai Chiu Lane in Kowloon district and at the JIL chapter in Asian House along Henessy Road in the Wan Cha district.

"It is a good thing they are here and we can approach them," OFW Eufemia Martin, 45, of Bulacan province said. "In Manila, we cannot get near them because of security (concerns)."

Despite the high rating of Villar, Cayetano and Lacson in the surveys, the OFWs got the candidates’ faces and names mixed up. Another OFW said she was glad to see Villar, whom she described as the richest senator in the Philippines.

Besides the United Filipinos of Hong Kong, members of the party-list groups Gabriela and Migrante were also present.

The three senatorial candidates are courting overseas voters, whose numbers have just breached the 500,000 mark. The JIL vote here commands about 20,000 votes of some 200,000 documented Filipino workers in Hong Kong.

Some 2,000 members attended the activity at the JIL center in May Cheong Street.

Brother Joel Villanueva, who is also a representative of the party-list group CIBAC, was here to represent his father, Brother Eddie Villanueva: "This is obviously an endorsement from the JIL community. Since time immemorial, the leadership of the JIL has been consistently talking with the camps of Villar, Lacson, Cayetano."

The CIBAC representative said the JIL has yet to complete the line-up of senatorial candidates that it will support in the May elections, but he revealed that Team Unity candidates Joker Arroyo and Edgardo Angara have been also seeking the JIL’s formal endorsement. – Christina Mendez