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From left to right: Binay, Defensor Santiago, Duterte, Poe, and Roxas
THE Philippines is again at the crossroads with the coming elections.
To get to know better the five presidential candidates, here are the platforms and their positions on the plight of overseas Filipino workers and China.
Binay eyes OFW bank
Vice President Jejomar Binay has served as presidential adviser on overseas Filipino worker (OFW) concerns and chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council under the Aquino administration. He has previously served as mayor of Makati City for 20 years.
Running under a platform of battling poverty, Binay has vowed to make economic growth inclusive while promising effective and caring governance. Poverty, according to the Vice President who is facing charges of graft and corruption, is the country’s main moral problem and not corruption.
“We can solve poverty; we can get people out of poverty. You are looking at someone who faced that problem,” Binay said. “Like what we did in Makati, we will improve the service of public hospitals in the country. We will provide comprehensive health care to everyone and free medical services to the poor.”
He vowed to ensure that the government’s role as an enabler will be “played to the hilt” under his administration. “We will aim to build one mega project per region and one major project per province,” the Vice President said, adding that at least five percent of the country’s GDP will be devoted to an integrated countrywide infrastructure development program.
Binay has assured OFWs that under his presidency, working abroad will become “a matter of choice and not a necessity.” He envisioned OFWs coming home “to a progressive and caring country that can support Filipinos’ aspirations of a good life.” He has also expressed openness to forming an OFW bank for Filipino workers abroad, who sent around $25.7 billion back to the Philippines last year.
The Vice President is also pushing for bilateral talks between Manila and Beijing to resolve the maritime dispute in the South China Sea. “China has money, and we need the capital,” he said, adding that a “joint venture” in developing the natural resources in the disputed territory should be studied.
His platform of government includes implementing a nationwide program similar to Makati’s globally-recognized Yellow Card program, which provides free maternal, child and elderly care; free outpatient consultation and medicines; and government-subsidized hospitalization on top of PhilHealth benefits.
Defensor Santiago wants special task force for OFWs
Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago is known for her legal brilliance and track record of fighting corruption in government. She was the first Filipino and first Asian from a developing country to be elected to the United Nations as judge of the International Criminal Court.
She also bagged the Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize, for her “bold and moral leadership in cleaning up a graft-ridden agency” during her stint as head of the Bureau of Immigration.
In June 2014, she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, but claimed that her cancer has already regressed. She has, however, missed the second presidential debate in Cebu as she had to undergo clinical trial for a new anti-cancer pill.
As for the dispute with China, Santiago said resolving the issue requires “a second level of diplomacy” through bilateral negotiations bordering on conciliation instead of relying solely on the arbitration case pending before the UN court in The Hague. “The government seems to have grown complacent on the issue of the West Philippine Sea dispute, confident that the international tribunal now hearing the memorial it has filed against China will rule in its favor.”
As senator, Santiago has pushed for wider protection for OFWs, especially those in distress. She has called for the creation of a multi-agency task force to ensure that Filipinos working abroad are not maltreated, citing the case of Thelma Gawida, a domestic helper in Singapore who filed a case against her employers who fed her instant noodles and bread twice a day for four months that caused her to lose weight, going from 46 kilograms to 29 kilograms. “How many other Filipinos in foreign countries suffer the same fate so they can send money to their loved ones? The government should help them,” Santiago said.
To achieve inclusive growth, Santiago has promised to spend five percent of government resources for public infrastructure. “My priority projects include a modern international airport; an entirely new railway system from Manila to Sorsogon; one mixed-use government center in the NCR and in each of the 17 regions; and one major project per region and per province,” she said.
Duterte to protect OFWs vs. land-grabbers
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the self-styled “punisher” among the five presidential candidates, is running on a platform of addressing criminality and the spread of drugs. Duterte has been hounded by accusation of human rights abuses with the so-called Davao Death Squad, and he has been unapologetic about it: “If you are afraid to kill or die, you cannot be president. You better find another job.”
Ahead of the campaign period, Duterte found himself in hot water for cursing Pope Francis, saying the latter’s visit to the Philippines caused heavy traffic jam in Metro Manila. He eventually apologized saying being disrespectful to the Holy Father was never his intention.
Under his administration, peace and order will be a priority: “We will replicate nationwide our accomplishments in Davao in terms of ensuring peace and order and the simplification of many business processes. We will create an enabling environment to encourage entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.”
He said he is open to talks with China but stressed that the Beijing should first honor whatever will be the ruling of the UN arbitration court.
“I am open to bilateral talks with China about the disputed territories to ease the increasing fees of shipping insurance of vessels that have to pass through these areas, which is hurting the industry. But first if the ruling of the arbitration court is favorable to us they should honor it. I am open to it, but I will not initiate it,” the mayor said.
He also promised to improve labor conditions for OFWs, many of whom view the so-called “Dirty Harry of the South” as the game-changer in the May elections. Duterte cited the need to develop “business islands” for investors patterned after Hong Kong and Singapore so that Filipinos no longer need to seek jobs abroad. He also vowed to run after land-grabbing syndicates who victimize Filipinos, especially OFWs.
“OFWs are the most vulnerable to the nefarious activities of illegal settlers with ties to syndicates. Our OFWs work long years on foreign soil only to find out that the properties they have bought with money earned from their blood, sweat and tears had been taken over by illegal settlers.”
Poe supports arbitration with China
A foundling who was left on the doorstep of the Jaro Cathedral in Iloilo as a baby, Senator Grace Poe-Llamanzares was eventually adopted by the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. and veteran actress Susan Roces. Poe has served as chairperson of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board under the Aquino administration.
While consistently doing well in various pre-election surveys, Poe’s candidacy was only sealed on March 7 when the Supreme Court decided to overturn a ruling of the Commission on Elections disqualifying her from the presidential race.
Poe has vowed to ease traffic in a year if she becomes president. “I will guarantee to you that if I become president, I think we can help ease the traffic at least within a year,” she said.
While she has backed the arbitration case lodged by the Philippines before the United Nations tribunal in The Hague, Poe has emphasized the need to nurture other aspects of bilateral relations with Beijing, noting that a policy of “cooperation, equality and amity” must be pursued.
“China has been a long time trade partner of the Philippines. We have other relations with China that go beyond political – economic, education ties, cultural ties. And I believe in pursuing these ties with China we can help each other,” she said. Poe, however, said the Philippines should take the leadership role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in pushing for a binding Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.
Poe said her administration would work to create job opportunities for OFWs such that leaving the country to work abroad will become a choice and not something that is forced on them by poverty. Under her administration, Poe vowed to grant credit assistance and tax incentives to returning OFWs who are planning to start a business in the Philippines.
“Our OFWs leave the country with hope that when they come back, they will have the financial capacity to stay. We should encourage and support the dreams of our migrants to be reintegrated in our society.”
Roxas to protect OFW rights
Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel Roxas II has been in the government in various capacities – as head of the transportation and interior departments under the Aquino administration and as trade secretary under the Estrada and Arroyo administrations where he earned the moniker “Mr. Palengke.”
As DTI chief, he was largely credited for helping the business process outsourcing industry. When he was elected senator in 2004, Roxas pushed for the passage of the Cheaper Medicines Act even as he was tagged by critics as having watered down the measure.
“Our program will focus on every Filipino family. We will make sure that each family is free from hunger, free from fear, and free to dream. That’s what I’m fighting for, that’s what I know, that’s what I can do and that’s what we will all do,” Roxas said.
Should he win the presidency, Roxas has vowed to increase the budget for the conditional cash transfer, which now covers 4.5 million families. “I intend to continue the work of Daang Matuwid until every Filipino family is given a fair fighting chance to achieve their dreams and succeed. We will sustain and even expand the CCT until it achieves its fullest potential and widen the scope of Bottom Up Budgeting (BuB).”
He said he is open to discussing tax reforms, but only after the elections as it is very easy to make promises of slashing personal and corporate income taxes when one is campaigning but these are difficult to implement. “There are structural deficiencies in our tax system that we need to address not in a piecemeal approach, and definitely not in the heat of the elections,” Roxas said.
He vowed to protect the rights and welfare of OFWs. Roxas has also called for calm in addressing the tensions with China over maritime disputes in the South China Sea, expressing support for the international arbitration in The Hague. “If we start violence, we don’t know how this would end. Our actions (arbitration) were just and according to the legal process. That’s what we should pursue,” he said.