OFWs MAY HOLD DECIDING VOTE February 9, 2004 Senatorial candidate Boots Anson-Roa said that overseas Filipino workers may hold the deciding vote in the forthcoming national elections, particularly in the presidential contest. She pointed out that a total of 364,187 OFWs all over the world had registered for the May 10 polls, with Hong Kong topping all diplomatic posts in the number of voters registered at 88,677. The Middle East and Africa, with a total of 157,350 registrants, led in the count per region. Anson-Roa, who is running for the Senate under the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino headed by presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. and his running mate, Senator Loren Legarda, said that the OFWs votes can easily balloon into over a million votes, taking into account the votes of family members at home who are qualified to vote. It is assumed that being the bread winners, OFWs will tell qualified voters in their families to support the candidates they chose to vote, Ansono-Roa said. “The Arroyo administration holds the responsibility of assuring the right of suffrage of all OFWs in the light of the cancellation of the automated election arising from the Supreme Court decision nullifying the contract for such automated voting,” Anson-Roa said. The KNP senatorial bet deplored the general plight of OFWs, saying they are not getting enough help from the government in terms of repatriation and legal assistance. She cited the cases of thousands of OFWs, mostly runaway maids, who have been stranded in many host countries because they cannot be repatriated to their homeland by the government. Anson-Roa also stressed that there are thousands of distressed OFWs who cannot be given ample legal assistance and are now languishing in foreign jails. If elected to the Senate, she vowed to take the initiative of improving the Migrant Workers Act by providing more funds for the protection and well-being of OFWs, who should be honored as the real heroes of the economy. She called also for the setting up of more welfare centers for OFWs in major host countries.