The Philippine Supreme Court has recently ruled that dual citizens may vote in local elections without having to reside in the Philippines for one year.
Finally, here's a ruling that puts real substance to the absentee voting law which was designed to enable Filipino expatriates to participate in Philippine elections. The one year residence requirement practically disenfranchised otherwise qualified voters, mostly longtime immigrants or dual citizens from actually casting a vote.
So what is the significance of this
liberalized interpretation of the Overseas Absentee Voting law in the Philippines? It means that Christmas in November which is celebrated in the Philippines come election time will soon become a tradition even in America..
Philippine politicians will have to provide a budget for overseas voters. At last we can experience the smell of jueteng money, fertilizer fund, tobacco excise taxes, at iba pa.
Unlike politicians in America, the
motto of Pinoy politicians is: It is better to give than to receive, at least during election time.
***
The former Philippine Consul General In
Los Angeles, CA, Willy Gaa is now Philippine Ambassador to Washington, D.C.
Before his appointment, I’ve heard
speculations that the next ambassador will have to be a rich man like former Amb. Albert Del Rosario because D.C. is a high visibility post that requires a fat representation budget beyond what the government has usually allotted.
The new ambassador is a career diplomat
and honest career diplomats usually do not stumble on a gold mine. That means he will have to live within the budget allowed by the DFA. That should not be a problem. Filipinos in metro-Washington are very understanding. Mr. Ambassador, I have a brilliant suggestion. For your first big community reception, just announce- pot luck. And if you have to entertain guests, don’t load your credit card at expensive restaurants or spend for catering services. Just bring them to any of the countless induction dinners of Pinoy organizations and they will
not go hungry. They might even enjoy ballroom dancing.
Welcome to Washington, Mr. Ambassador.
***
In the history of the old West, whenever
frontier migrants run into trouble , the federal government sends in the cavalry to the rescue.
In the chaos of the war in Lebanon,
thousands of migrant Filipino workers are caught in the middle of the action. The Philippine government had to scramble to get its citizens out of harms way. For a while, there were more action through press releases than action on the ground. Even the Philippine ambassador to Lebanon complained of lack of
funds. Anyhow, a few thousands have been successfully repatriated or evacuated back to the Philippines.
It appears however that the big majority
of an estimated thirty thousand Filipinos in Lebanon choose to stay. They probably feel that the sniping between the
Israelis and Hezbollah is more tolerable than the sniping between the Arroyo forces and the political opposition. The probably figured out that living in the crossfire is less perilous than the prospect of hunger for themselves and
their families if they were to go back to a state of unemployment.
Some of the Filipino evacuees really
wanted to go home, not because of the war, but to escape from a cruel employer. There are probably more Filipino workers, mostly women, who are still trapped in Lebanon and in other parts of the world , unable to break from the bondage of servitude. The government should take these sad stories of overseas workers to
heart. It should be part of consular mission to be able to check on the welfare of contract workers abroad and abort an abusive situation. The migrant workers have done much for their country. Their country should not fail them in times of dire need.
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