NEWS RELEASE - 17 January 2004

Reference: JOHN MONTERONA,
Vice Chairperson and Number 2 Partylist Nominee
Contact No.: +63 920-2101290

The MIGRANTE Sectoral Party formally announced its participation in the 2004 elections and promised to rally the 1-million migrant vote to gain seats in the legislature in a media forum at the Tree House Restaurant in Quezon City today.

"For the first time in Philippine national politics, a sectoral party of overseas Filipino workers and their families shall enter and fight to win representation in Congress," said MIGRANTE Sectoral Party Vice Chairperson and partylist nominee John Monterona.

The MIGRANTE Sectoral Party has been given the green light by the Commission on Elections to engage the electoral arena via the Party List elections.

"Based on our track record, reach and expansion in our country's regions and in overseas Filipino communities worldwide, MIGRANTE shall rally the one-million migrant vote to bring our agenda and our long-denied representation in the legislature. We shall also deny votes to all candidates without the migrant agenda in their platforms," Monterona said.

MIGRANTE said that the one-million migrant vote shall come from the 364,187 absentee voters abroad and their dependents here in the Philippines. "Migrant-dependent families, on the average, have three registered voters. With a presence in 22 countries and 10 regions, MIGRANTE shall join the elections and fight to win seats in Congress," Monterona averred.

MIGRANTE declared that "the entry of OFWs and their families into the electoral arena via party list elections signals the addition of more intelligent votes in the elections and the heralding of the migrant agenda into the national agenda of legislation and governance."

60-day manual count overseas?

MIGRANTE also aired on its "grave concern" on the chaotic repercussions of a manual count of absentee voting election returns abroad.

"In the light of the Supreme Court decision that has relegated this year's elections to manual counting, we challenge the COMELEC and the DFA Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat to fix the mess overseas absentee voting is now in," Monterona said. MIGRANTE revealed that "remedial measures must be crafted by the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee to ensure effective implementation of the absentee voting law and the protection of the overseas Filipino votes."

"OFWs and their families are very much concerned with what will happen to their votes in a manual count. It is impossible for the DFA and the COMELEC to divide the absentee voting populace into precincts for 500 voters each. In Hong Kong, for example, with 88,000 registered absentee voters, that would mean 176 precincts. Each precinct would have 3 people, meaning Hong Kong would need 528 people. That would entail a financial nightmare for the Philippine Consulate as it does not have enough space, and building rentals are extremely expensive in the territory," Monterona said.

"With this impossibility, the counting would likely be conducted in the Consulate. This would take 60 days (1,434 hours) to manually count the election returns in Hong Kong. That is assuming that it would take one minute to open, read and tally the votes of each ballot and if the special board of canvassers do a non-stop counting for 24 hours," Monterona averred.

MIGRANTE also cited, Saudi Arabia, with 97,000 registered absentee voters where the 2 diplomatic posts in the Kingdom would take 67 days (1,616 hours) to manually count the election returns.

"That is a financially impossible 194 precincts and 582 people. This is also impossible since the DFA barely managed to have a registration in Al-Khobar, in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province since the Saudi government does not allow elections," Monterona said.

Another concern raised by MIGRANTE is how the DFA would ensure the safety of ballots cast by mail in Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada where it is permitted.

"All that the DFA and the COMELEC has asked from Congress is a US$4.5 million budget for an additional 2,271 people to do the manual count of overseas absentee votes. This is the resulting cover up of the monumental mess of reverting to a manual count in overseas absentee voting. We challenge the COMELEC to fix this mess. Counting the historic first time voters' election returns should not waste the people's money and take months to finish," Monterona ended. #