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AMID stinging criticisms, the party-list group Ahon
Pinoy maintained Tuesday its independence and as well as the
sincerity of its nominees to serve overseas Filipino workers as
their representatives in Congress.
Speaking for the group, Dante
Francis Ang II made the clarification in response to an editorial by
the Philippine Daily Inquirer that commented on the petition of two
urban-poor groups to disqualify the nominees of Ahon and 42 other
party-list groups.
The Inquirer, in its editorial,
and the groups Urban Poor for Legal Reforms and Bantay RA 7941
claimed that Ahon Pinoy’s nominees—Ang, Bernardo Ople and
Ernesto Herrera III—should be disqualified because they do not
belong to the marginalized or underrepresented sector of OFWs they
claim to represent.
Ang explained that Ahon Pinoy was
organized with the specific purpose of giving the overseas workers a
voice in Congress.
“Sadly, up to now, the OFWs—hailed
as the modern-day heroes for the billions they plunk yearly into the
economy through their remittances—do not enjoy such
representation, he said.
As to their qualifications, Ang
pointed out that their records were proof enough to comply with what
is mandated by RA 7941, or the Party-list Law.
“We assure the writer that our
nominees have experience in labor and the expatriate workers’
field. Modesty aside, no team can be more eminently qualified to
represent OFWs in Congress,” Ang said.
Ang once served as a contractual
employee, as information officer, with the Philippine Consulate
General in Toronto, Canada.
Ople, on the other hand, was once
director general of the National Manpower and Youth Council and
currently secretary general of the Asian Regional Training and
Development Organization.
Herrera III had once been an OFW
working in the United States for two years in the field of IT
engineering and is well-versed in the plight of the workers, having
been tutored by his father, former Senator Ernesto Herrera, the
secretary general of the Trade Union Council of the Philippines.
Ang assured that the Ahon Pinoy
nominees have all come from humble beginnings and have deep
compassion for the underprivileged and marginalized sector which
they seek to represent.
“May we add that we hope we
will be judged on the basis of what we can, and intend to do, and
not because of our relationship with our fathers, or brothers,” he
said.
If Ahon Pinoy wins, Ang said its
nominees will work for a collateral-free loans of up to P1 million
for livelihood projects; guaranteed education for their offspring
from the primary grades through college via the study-now, pay-later
plan; assistance for decent housing; and lowering the cost of
telephone calls—primarily the cellular phone and a longer expiry
period for pre-paid cell cards.
Comelec Acting Commissioner
Resurrección Borra said on Tuesday that under the Party-list Law,
the party-list group or organization is the one being elected, and
not its nominees.
It is precisely why, Borra
pointed out, the law bans the use of the names of the nominees in
the campaign.
“That is why the Comelec comes
out only with the certified list of accredited party-list groups and
not their nominees,” Borra said but admitted that the names of
nominees is already a public record and as such may be released by
the Comelec on demand.
Borra said though that the
Comelec would only release it after the election, not before or
during the campaign period.
He said the Comelec en banc would
look into the petition filed by the two urban groups.
Earlier, Alioden Dalaeg of the
Comelec law department said the Comelec only disqualified party-list
groups not the nominees.
In 2004 the group Mamamayang Ayaw
sa Droga, or MAD, whose number one nominee was the actor Richard
Gomez, was among the party-list groups disqualified by the Comelec
on orders of the Supreme Court.
--William B. Depasupil
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