OFWs may lose right to vote

A petition from change.org posted word for word, let's push this petition!

"We see them at the airport every hour, every day. Men and women saying goodbye to weeping families.Each of the 100 million Filipinos has kin or friends who work and live abroad. Many of them work under harsh conditions. We call our Overseas Filipinos Bagong Bayani (New Heroes). They not only support entire clans; they prop up the national economy.

OFWs fought hard for 16 years to exercise their basic right to vote. In 2003, the Overseas Absentee Voting Act was passed in 2003. Data shows that 2.5 percent of the 10 to 12 million Filipinos abroad have since then voted in elections.

These gains are now in peril, warns a petition on Change.org that seeks the return of P89.6-million budget needed in 2015 for the proper implementation of overseas voting.

Absentee Voters' Registration at NAIA-1

OFWs can now register as an Overseas Absentee Voter at NAIA 1, Mondays through Sundays 7am-10pm according to the Manila International Airport Authority website.

The government aims to increase OFW participation in the next national elections on May 2013.  Their plans also include setting up booths in the POEA, DFA, OWWA offices and distributing information materials

Migrante-Middle East in its blog welcomed this development although it also pointed out “the conduct of massive OAV registration information and dissemination, and voter’s education campaign abroad is still wanting”.

Online petition against OFW PHilHealth premium hike

An online petition was put up by Migrante-Middle East to stop the rate hike of PhilHealth premiums. PhilHealth will increase the monthly premiums to PhP2,400 from the current PhP900.