Filipino Absentee Voting: Do We Really Need These Votes?

In the recent 2010 Philippine national elections, I saw certain Filipinos who are now U.S. citizens who cast their votes for their desired candidates in the Philippine elections. I said to myself, “why the heck to we need their votes?”

Yes, I’m already getting the point that after all that they have done in leaving the Philippines, they still care for their country so much as to vote for the candidates there, and besides they were given the right to do so. Honestly, I’m not at all prejudicial against those Filipino expatriates who have renounced their Filipino nationality to move to another country. In the current situation here in the Philippines, it’s hard not to grab the opportunity to escape from all the problems going on and just leave. So if these people still want to help their country, there are many other ways besides voting.

First, for the Filipinos residing here in the Philippines, the number one cause for the election of incompetent people to top spots in the government is the ignorance of the people. Here in the Philippines, winning a national election is just a matter of political advertisements and the certain aura that comes with names that has long been attached with politics or what we call “name recall.” If this is already the condition for the Filipinos in the Philippines then how will it be for Filipinos who are not even exposed to the true condition of the country and are just getting all their information from the television, which unfortunately can be heavily biased in favor or against a candidate, and their relatives whose opinions are most likely also infected with the media’s biased reporting?

Lastly, since these people have the least possible idea of who the best person to vote for, chances are they’re not going to vote for the right person. But then again, come to think of it, it doesn’t really matter who they vote for because they’re not going to have a better life if the situation in the Philippines improves because of a good elected candidate neither will they be sharing in the hardship if the Philippines plummets to bankruptcy because of a bad candidate. Why? Because they are no longer living here. And why do you ask why I seem to be putting the all the burden on the elected candidates? Because the Philippines’ economy is very precarious. The Philippines if you do not know, though some say is already developing, is still a third world country. If an incumbent president let’s say does really good in fixing the country’s economy but his or her successor is a complete dumb twit, it’s possible that we’ll go back to zero and start again on repairing the economy instead of focusing on other things. So in this kind of situation where the officials (especially the president) play a huge role in the country’s improvement, elections should be taken seriously.

And who will benefit or suffer because of the hardwork or the stupidity of the elected officials whose election they had a part of? Us, the Filipinos still living in the Philippines.

This absentee voting law, I think, is one of the laws the congress should scrap. However, one must understand that I am only not in favor of Filipinos already permanently residing in other countries voting. This is distinct from overseas Filipino workers whose stay in other countries are just temporary and only posses a worker’s visa rather than a permanent residency visa.