VICE President Jejomar Binay promised significant measures and stronger law enforcement to protect overseas Filipino workers from human trafficking, saying there are thousands of OFWs become victims of illegal recruitment despite government’s effort to stop the illegal activities.
Binay made the pledge after he arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in the company of five distressed women who were duped by illegal recruiters to work in the United Arab Emirates.
Binay and the five women —Rosminda Baui, Leowilyn Tan, Lucresia Insesto, Angelyn Tak and Belsie Espine —were met at the airport by United Nationalist Alliance vice presidential candidate and Senator Gringo Honasan, senatorial candidate and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez.
In a press conference, Binay, former Presidential Adviser on OFW concerns, said he supports Senator Nancy Binay’s move to increase the assistance fund for OFWs and undocumented Filipino workers.
The elderly Binay noted that many of those who suffered abuses abroad are undocumented and do not qualify for assistance that the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration gives its members.
Binay, who also served as chairman of the Presidential Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment, vowed to assist in the investigation of the OFWs’ cases, especially those who were given jobs different from what was promised them as he called for clearer guidelines on the repatriation of undocumented workers.
Binay said he was humbled by the latest Social Weather Stations survey where he placed as the top presidential candidates in the coming national elections.
The 73-year-old had long been the favorite but his poll numbers tanked last year when allegations emerged that he and his son, both former mayors of the Makati financial district, had taken huge kickbacks in the construction of a city-owned car park building.
The Social Weather Stations said the vice president had regained a clear lead with 31 percent preferring him in its Jan. 8-10 nationwide survey.
“Some people are cynical, reasoning out that all politicians are corrupt anyway,” political analyst Ramon Casiple, from Manila-based think tank the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, told AFP.
With an error of margin of plus or minus three percentage points, Senator Grace Poe (24 percent), Roxas (21 percent), and anti-crime advocate Rodrigo Duterte (20 percent) are in a statistical deadlock.
The 1,200 voters polled were not asked to explain their preference, Leo Laroza, survey data library director for Social Weather, told AFP.
Casiple said some support for Poe and Duterte eroded due to disqualification cases filed against them.
However, he said many Filipino voters have yet to make up their minds months before the May 9 election.
The official Commission on Elections ruled last month that Poe, an orphan of unknown parentage who was adopted and raised by the Philippines’ most famous movie stars, was not a Filipino at birth and could not run for president.
The case is on appeal at the Supreme Court, which provisionally stopped the government dropping her name from the ballot.
Duterte, mayor of a southern city where hundreds of petty criminals have been killed by masked anti-crime vigilantes, registered as a candidate after the Oct. 16, 2015 deadline to replace another candidate who backed out.