The battle for the OFW vote
Filipinos casting their vote at the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai.(Photo: JMDYS/EXPAT MEDIA)
For the first time since absentee elections for overseas Filipinos were first conducted in 2004, we’re seeing a decline in overseas voter registration. The Commission on Elections says they foresaw this dip, considering that almost 800,000 OFWs came home in 2021 due to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, there was a sizable increase in domestic voter registration that has not been seen “in a long time,” with 65.7 million new registrations as of December 2021.
Despite the decrease in overseas voters, candidates for national positions are battling it out to earn the votes of OFWs and dual citizens, since absentee voting starts on April 10, a whole month before the official election day.
Promises, promises
OFW remittances make up for nearly 9% of the Philippines’ GDP. After hitting some road bumps in early 2020, OFW remittances went up by 5.1% in 2021, and are projected to continue rising, with the global economy slowly recovering.
There are over 10 million Filipinos living abroad, and almost 1.7 million are registered voters. Given the economic importance of OFWs, they represent a sector of the population whose votes are given high priority. As such, the current candidates are hard at work trying to win their favor.
Presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and his camp hosted a miting de avance specifically for OFWs on Saturday, April 2. Partido Federal ng Pilipinas secretary general Thompson Lantion says this is the first time in the country’s history that a presidential poll leader has initiated a “large-scale, comprehensive miting de avance” for OFWS.
VP Leni Robredo, on the other hand, promised to implement the one-stop migration centers providing services to OFWs like those in her hometown of Naga City. Her promise is that under her administration, Filipinos will only have to work abroad if they choose to, not because they have no other option. Her running mate, Senator Kiko Pangilinan, has also vowed to help OFWs via his farming initiatives, giving them a viable source of income once they come home and retire.
Presidential bets, Pacquiao, Domagoso, Lacson, and Montemayor also all promised to provide support to both documented and undocumented workers at the most recent debate organized by the COMELEC.
Who will OFWs vote for?
A study done among 118 OFWs from all around the world found that OFWs prefer a candidate that has integrity. For them, the main problem of the Philippines is graft and corruption. They expressed that if corruption is eliminated, there will no longer be a need for them to work abroad. They described their ideal candidate as one who is not corrupt and is sincere in serving the people.
Interestingly, a number of respondents said that they prefer the strongman type leadership like that of President Rodrigo Duterte. Perhaps this is because they believe that cracking down on corruption requires a strongman leader?
During the 2016 elections, Marcos won the OFW vote against Robredo for the position of Vice President. Political columnists are also pointing out that, historically, the Marcoses have always had strong ties to the OFW community.
But whether any of the current Presidential candidates fit the bill for any or all of the aforementioned traits, and whether Marcos will once again win the votes of OFWs, are both still up for debate.
As we enter the tail end of one of the most high-stakes election seasons we have seen in the past few decades, OFWs, the pillars of our economy, will be the first to vote. The candidates have all presented their platforms, so now we leave it up to the OFWs to decide: whose promises will they believe?
