Misuse of OWWA funds

THE MASSIVE spending of money by presidential candidates to woo voters during election campaign periods has become standard procedure in Philippine politics. Unfortunately, the misuse of public funds by incumbent administrations for their own selfish political ends has also become common.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's administration is no different. According to Migrante Party-List's vice chairperson John Monterona, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) launched the "OFW Groceria Project" last Thursday with 240,000 pesos in funding taken directly from the OWWA trust fund.

The said project will give out grocery store packages to select individuals on the condition that they displayed Macapagal-Arroyo campaign signboards on their storefronts. In theory, the grocery packages are being given out as loans, but no interest is being charged and repayment dates are vague.

In a phone interview, Monterona told me that Migrante and many OFWs were appalled at the blatant misuse of public funds for partisan political ends. "It is especially galling that OWWA is releasing these funds when OFW Josephine Nariz, who has terminal colon cancer, has been denied any medical assistance by OWWA!"

Nariz worked abroad for 11 years as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong, until the 36-year old single mother from Sipocot town in the province of Camarines Sur, southeast of Manila, was diagnosed with cancer. Her illness is in the terminal stages, and she has been given only until this month before she passes away. Her hospital bills have already reached 500,000 pesos, yet her appeals for financial assistance from OWWA have fallen on deaf ears.

"Under the new Omnibus Policies of OWWA, since Nariz is no longer an active member of OWWA, she isn't entitled to any of its benefits," explained Monterona, adding that a special appeal to OWWA Administrator Virgilio Angelo was met with a shrug of the shoulders.

"Angelo told us that according to the new rules, they couldn't help Nariz."

"The OWWA leadership could have released all the medical assistance funds Nariz was entitled to. Instead it opted to satisfy the greedy campaign fund drive of President Arroyo," Monterona added.

Nariz has a son who is in the second year of high school. An appeal for a scholarship loan from the OWWA was also turned down by the organization that is supposed to look after the welfare of OFWs. How ironic and sad!

Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas and Angelo are squarely to blame for dismantling the benefits that OWWA gives OFWs and their families. It is clear from their actions that the welfare of OFWs is hardly their topmost concern. I urge all OFWs and their families: Don't vote for Macapagal-Arroyo in May. She doesn't deserve the vote of a single OFW.

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Victory for Poe

THE SUPREME Court ruling that we were all waiting for, on whether or not opposition presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. is a natural-born Filipino, finally came through in favor of Poe in an 8-5-1 vote on Wednesday night. Unsurprisingly, four of the five justices who voted against Poe are Macapagal-Arroyo appointees.

Although Macapagal-Arroyo campaign manager Mike Defensor keeps denying that Malacañang was behind the disqualification bid, I don't believe it for one moment. The more denials they issue, the guiltier they are in my eyes.

Of course, as Poe's legal counsel Attorney Sixto Brillantes said on television, "We were afraid that the case might be remanded to a lower court." If that had happened, unrest would have ensued with street demonstrations by Poe supporters and the uncertainty causing continued economic instability in the stock market and the downward spiral of the peso.

Now in another attempt to derail an opposition candidate's campaign, the Department of Justice on Thursday filed a 20-page motion before the Supreme Court to reopen the Kuratong Baleleng multiple-murder case against presidential candidate Panfilo Lacson. Although the case had been dropped by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, the Macapagal-Arroyo administration is desperate to derail Lacson's presidential bid. As usual, Defensor came out and denied that the Macapagal-Arroyo administration was behind the justice department's petition. But whom is he kidding?

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Overemphasis on opinion surveys

EVERY few weeks in the run-up to the May elections, new political opinion poll results are being released and every political camp is trying to spin the results in its favor.

Although Poe was leading by a large margin in the first Social Weather Stations survey done in January, the latest SWS survey, done in February, has him running neck-to-neck with President Macapagal-Arroyo. Interestingly, the latest Ibon Foundation survey found Poe leading with 30 percent of the voters choosing him, Raul Roco second with 19 percent, Macapagal-Arroyo third with 16 percent, and Lacson a distant fourth with 7.68 percent.

Some observers have tried to cast doubts on the Ibon findings by insinuating that being a Left-leaning populist group they are inherently anti-establishment.

Indeed, they are the only polling outfit to have found Macapagal-Arroyo in third place. But others have also said that since Ibon is closer to the "masa" [masses] it might be more accurately reflecting public opinion.

Questions on who is paying for the surveys undertaken have been raised, but no one is revealing who commissions them. Every political camp likes to accuse its opponent of being behind a survey that shows it in a bad light. How questions are asked, who asks the questions, and restrictions in how a question can be answered are all ways of influencing the outcome of an opinion poll. Thankfully, most Filipinos seem to be aware of this and are not taking the results of surveys too seriously.

Indeed, when an opinion poll is based on the answers of only 1,300 people, the results can never be said to be 100-percent accurate. With 35 million eligible Filipino voters, surveys should only be taken as an indicator of the general direction that the whole electorate is going in. Its ultimate destination will only be known in May. And between now and then, a lot can happen, trust me.

Comments or questions? E-mail the author at: rasheed@arabnews.com.