Urgent calls related to elections
"Overseas Filipinos initiated a petition to Congress and the DBM to ensure budget appropriations for overseas voting preparations. Can you endorse by signing on to the petition at change.org/OFWvotes?"
This urgent request was posted by Ellene Sana of the Center for Migrant Advocacy, Philippines. According to Ellene, the initial endorsements were to be submitted ahead to catch up with yesterday's House Plenary that will discuss the amendments to the 2015 national budget proposal.
Akbayan Representative Walden Bello, chairperson of the House Committee on Overseas Workers' Affairs, would reiterate the demand to reinstate the overseas voting budget during that September 26th House Plenary, the last session day before a 3-week recess of Congress.
Later endorsements will still be submitted so together with Ms. Ellene, may we kindly ask you to post and share the following urgent appeal to restore the much needed budget for the proper implementation of Overseas Voting for the 2016 Elections?
If you cannot log in to change.org/OFW votes, please send an email to Center for Migrant Advocacy, Philippines (CMA-Phils) at [email protected] or visit their website: http://centerformigrantadvocacy.com/.
This is the copy of that appeal addressed to President Benigno Aquino III, DBM Secretary Florencio Abad, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, and House Appropriations Committee chairman Isidro Ungab from Overseas Filipinos and supporters, including you, we hope.
"Overseas Filipinos, many of them working under harsh conditions, are called mga Bagong Bayani (New Heroes) by the Philippine government. They not only support entire clans. They also prop up the national economy, sending more than $25 billion in remittances in 2013 and nearly $13 billion in the first half of 2014.
While the Philippine 1987 Constitution enshrined Overseas Filipinos' right to vote, it took us 16 years to get Congress to pass the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003. Since then, a million of us have registered to vote.
Some 10.5 million Filipinos are overseas. The monumental project for massive political enfranchisement has clearly just started. Now, this noble cause is in peril with the Department of Budget and Management's (DBM) decision to slash P89.6 million required to properly implement the Overseas Voting Act from the 2015 national budget.
The decision jeopardizes our opportunity to vote in the 2016 presidential election. How callous can a government get to not want to spend P89 million pesos (a measly 1.4 percent of the proposed P6.336 trillion national budget) to fund the proper implementation of overseas voting? We are appealing to you, our relatives and friends, to help us push Congress and the Executive Department to return the P89.6 -million overseas voting budget. You can do so by signing this petition and sharing it with relatives and friends.
We overseas Filipinos are familiar with government condescension. While Bagong Bayani is routinely inserted in political speeches and bannered at the airport, state negligence often renders this meaningless. We risk life and limb to find work in every conceivable corner of the globe. In many cases, far from the protective reach of underfunded consulates, we're left to face alone the ugly consequences of our bold decision. Employer abuse and exploitation is common knowledge; sometimes, abuse and exploitation is perpetrated by our own bureaucrats. The unlucky ones return home in body bags, others return with the ugly scars of cruelty, and some with debilitating ailments-many are thrown back into the same vicious cycle of poverty they tried to escape.
If the government is incapable of appreciating our personal sacrifices as a context for its budgetary priorities, perhaps it should be reminded of our economic contributions. We contribute $144 billion or P6.336 trillion every presidential election cycle, more if we factor in projected remittance growth and revenues sent outside of monitored bank channels.
We strongly demand that the DBM restore the 89.6 million-peso budget needed in 2015 for the proper implementation of overseas voting. This is our basic right. This is the least the government owes us."
Back here in Cebu, SK election-related appeals have been made. Councilor Alvin Dizon has appealed to barangays and government agencies like the Commission on Higher Education and the Department of Education to encourage the youth ( ages 15-17) to enlist with the Comelec by or before September 29. Appeals for registration extension until semestral break have also been made to the Comelec by Akbayan Youth Cebu and by the Cebu City Youth Development Commission (CCYDC), respectively but Comelec has denied the CCYDC request.
Our youth and overseas Filipinos deserve to be given ample opportunity and time to register and to be accorded their right to vote. Please join the signature campaign to appeal for the restoration of the budget for Overseas Absentee Voting preparations.
Please also join the appeal for registration extension for more of our youth to exercise their right to select deserving public servants for our country.
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