Let us heed the call to vote

ON DISTANT SHORE

By Val G. Abelgas

Filipinos cast their vote for the national elections at the Philippine consulate in Dubai on April 9, 2016. (Image Credit: Zarina Fernandez/Gulf News)

Last Thursday, I performed my duty as a dual Filipino citizen by voting as an overseas voter in the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles. I had planned to wait for my absentee ballot in the mail, but I decided to see first hand how the new automated election system worked.

It was so easy and so efficient that it took just a few minutes to pick the candidates for president, vice president and 12 senators plus one party-list, have the ballot scanned by a machine, verify the votes from a printed voter receipt, and put back the receipt in a designated box. It seemed easier than the voting in US elections, where I have been casting my vote since the 2008 presidential elections as an American citizen.

If you live within driving distance to the Philippine embassy or a consulate, I suggest you don’t vote by mail but in person so that you would understand the process better and personally feel the joy of being able to have a voice in charting the future of our beloved homeland.

I have to congratulate the staff of the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles, headed by Consul General Leo Herrera-Lim, consul Mary Joy Ramirez, the Comelec-designated election officer, and Cultural Officer Wilma Bautista for their efforts to inform the community about the new automated process, to encourage registered Filipino voters to go out and vote, and to make the voting process as comfortable and enjoyable as possible.

Voting for the 1,376,067 Filipinos who registered for overseas absentee voting for the 2016 national elections started last April 9 and will go on until the local equivalent of 7 p.m. Philippine time on May 9. If you don’t want to fall in line, don’t wait for the last day and go to your consulate the earliest possible.

The Commission on Elections is targeting an 80-percent turnout for the absentee voters, a lofty goal that must be tried nevertheless. If by a stroke of miracle the goal is met, it would mean more than 1.1 million overseas voters would actually cast their votes, which is certainly more than enough to make a difference in deciding who would be the next batch of national leaders who will lead our country through the next six years.

With political pundits predicting the closest presidential and vice presidential races ever, the 1.3 million overseas votes – not counting the number of votes overseas Filipinos can influence – could spell the difference between victory and defeat for these national candidates. Even from afar, overseas Filipinos can be a major factor in the course that the country will pursue in the next six years.

In the 1992 presidential elections, for example, Fidel Ramos won by only 874,348 votes over Miriam Defensor Santiago in a seven-way fight among major candidates. In 2004, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo won by 1.12 million votes over Fernando Poe Jr. in a fraud-marred election highlighted by the “Hello Garci” scandal. Arroyo’s running mate for vice president, Noli de Castro, bested Loren Legarda by only 881,744 votes.

In the 2010 elections, although Benigno Aquino III beat Joseph Estrada by 5.7 million votes, Estrada’s running mate Jejomar Binay won over Manuel Roxas III by only 727,084 votes.
But if the two previous elections were to be the gauge, the 80-percent turnout goal would seem not only lofty, but would be closer to the realm of the impossible dream. In 2010, voter turnout was 26 percent or 153,323 voters, while in 2013 it was only 16 percent or 118,823 voters.

It is hoped, however, that with the unprecedented interest in the current campaign, which is the most contentious thus far, more overseas Filipinos would troop to the polls this time.

The first four days of overseas voting did not offer hope of even getting close to the 80-percent turnout. The Department of Foreign Affairs reported that as of 7:30 p.m., April 12 (Philippine time), only 27,620 have voted so far.

As usual, Hong Kong registered the highest number of voters with 9,167 as of 2:30 p.m., Monday, April 11, followed by the Middle East and Africa with 7,159, Europe with 1,927 and the Americas with 107. The 107 from the Americas, which include the US, Canada and the rest of the continent, is certainly disappointing but it is hoped that the number would geometrically increase as the voting deadline nears and as the mailed ballots start coming in.

During a briefing at the consulate in Los Angeles , Consul General Herrera-Lim said the absentee ballots would be mailed to out-of-state voters in the very first week of April and to those in Southern California in the second or third week of the month.

Thirty out of the 85 foreign service posts will implement the automated election system, which covers about 1.12 million voters. These posts are those in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the UAE; Beirut, Lebanon; Doha, Qatar; Jeddah, Al Khobar, and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia; Kuwait; Manama, Bahrain; Tel Aviv, Israel; Hong Kong; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Osaka and Tokyo in Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Singapore; Agana, Guam; Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. in the USA; Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada; London, United Kingdom; Madrid, Spain; and Milan and Rome in Italy.

The automated election system makes it a lot easier for voters to cast their ballot, and this should encourage overseas voters to participate in this year’s crucial elections.

Leaders of overseas Filipinos all over the world, especially here in the United States, fought a long and hard battle to gain voting rights for those who cannot go back to the Philippines to vote. There have been four elections since then, and we still have to show that it was worth the struggle and the expense on the part of the government to give us back the right to help determine the destiny of our beloved country.

As Filipinos who have seen how democracy works in their adopted countries, especially in the US and other developed nations, and have a more objective view of what is happening and what is good for the homeland, it is hoped we could provide the more intelligent votes for this election. We can protest the corruption and impotency of the national government back home but if we remain indifferent and stay away from actual participation in the country’s elections, all these would not matter. (valabelgas@aol.com)