The votes of the Overseas Filipino
Workers (OFWs), both landbased and seabased, are now being courted by groups
aiming political seats through the party-list representation.
Around 134 groups will vie for 59 seats
allotted for the party list in the House of Representatives
Party-list representation utilize the
tendency for proportional representation systems to favor single-issue
parties, and applies that tendency to allow underrepresented sectors to
represent themselves in the law-making process.
The party-lists system was introduced in
the 1987 Constitution and Republic Act 7941 (the Party-List Law) to
provide a balance for locality-based lawmakers, who are almost always elected
on the basis of their popularity and the money that they release. The Constitution allots 20% Lower House membership
from Partylist nominees, maximum at three nominees each, dependent on votes
they gather nationwide.
The Overseas Absentee Voting
Act was passed in 2003, allowing Filipinos overseas to vote for who they
want to be president, vice-president, senators, and party-list representatives.
POEA 2017 data shows that out of
the 1,992,746 deployed OFWs, 1,614,674 are landbased
while 378,072 are seabased. In terms of remittances, the seabased sector sent
home US$6,139,512.00 while the land based sector gave US$22,803,603,000.00.
Due to their absence during the election period, seafarers,
who are registered overseas voters, may cast their ballots 60 days before
the day of elections through two specialized modes: personal voting or,
in case of postal voting, in any post with international seaports as identified
and recommended by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Seafarers may vote at any post,
specifically Philippine embassies, consulates, foreign service
establishments and other Philippine government agencies maintaining offices
abroad, e.g., the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO).
In personal voting, seafarers voting shall be conducted in
the designated posts.
In postal voting, ballots for seafarers shall be
distributed proportionately among posts with identified international seaports.
These ballots shall be in the custody of the post for the entire voting period.
The seafarer shall personally claim the mailing packet at the post,
accomplish the official ballot contained in a mailing packet; and submit the
accomplished ballot which shall then be disposed in accordance with the
procedures on postal voting.
COMELEC records show that seafarers who
have registered to be OAVs number 43,033 as of 2019. This is less than 2016’s
49,339. The most seafaring OAVs are from Europe (22,433), followed by North and
Latin America (10,468), Asia Pacific (7,662), and the Middle East and Africa
(2,470).
But the strength of the seafarers’ votes
are essentially felt through their families residing in the Philippines.
For the seafaring sector, two party-list
groups are campaigning for this year’s mid-term election.
MARINO Partylist was formed
in 2014 by seafarers and stakeholders from the maritime community mostly in
Mindanao. They are pursuing advocacies that aims to make significant and
meaningful changes and reforms in the maritime industry.
On the other hand, ANGKLA was founded
in 2011 and won for 2 consecutive terms in 2013 and 2016.
A news report noted that ANGKLA prioritizes business matters; MARINO appeals
for seafarers (but backed by big-time business).
Several groups have called for the repeal
or the amendment of the party-list law as political dynasties have
"hijacked" the system, supposed to be a platform for representation
of marginalized sectors. The rosters of party-list representatives in
previous Congresses had been hit for being recycled lists of people already in
power.
A study noted that at least 49
party-list nominees in the upcoming midterm elections are part of a political
dynasty or families that have more than one member elected to a public post. If
their parties garner enough votes, the nominees could occupy 83 percent of the
59 party-list seats in the House of Representatives
(Atty. Gorecho heads the
seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law
offices. For comments, email info@sapalovelez.com,
or call 09175025808 or 09088665786)
