The 2010 presidential aspirants are not “exciting’’ and “lack substance’’ in terms of alleviating the plight of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), the head of the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters said Wednesday.

Lito Soriano, also an OFW, said the eight "presidentiables" recognized by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) do not show any enthusiasm in ensuring the rights and welfare of Filipino workers abroad.

“For now, there are no clear economic platform of reforms for OFWs even from those presidentiables identified with the OFWs,’’ Soriano said during a media briefing.

“We want more substance. Specifically, we are not seeing any effort from them to prosecute the one who victimizes the OFWs,’’ he said.

These presidential aspirants, he noted, should also include among its lists of economic platform of reforms the improvement of real economy and OFWs undue remittances.

“The remittances should be able to create factory and good education, among others, and not to be use for import of rice and products from China,’’ he stressed.

Currently, he said only 10 percent of OFW remittances are used for local production. He lamented that the government spends an estimated P3.8 billion year for import of rice alone.

Citing local report, he said the Philippines is now the number one importer of rice worldwide. "OFWs want their remittances spent for the improvement of education and local products, and not for import of products from China,'' he said.

Soriano also said that the next president should be able to push for a new economic model and come up with a tangible legislation for the protection and welfare of Filipino migrants.

He noted that the “Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995’’ has been around for 30 years now and should be amended. “There are provisions in the 1995 Act that are controversial and should be looked into.’’