ONE of the benefits touted to Filipino-Americans about dual citizenship is the right to participate in voting at home. But that has been vastly overplayed, as noted by the abysmal number of those who had registered to vote.
Let's examine the numbers more closely. Out of at least two million naturalized Filipinos here, the number of 10,633 who registered to vote represent less than 0.5% - an appallingly low percentage by any measure. And I'm certain that's not going to change much in the future.
One criticism I had from the beginning is that voting for candidates back home does not make any sense when most of us here know nothing or very little about the candidates there, or the issues involved. Voting in absentia in that context is at best an exercise in futility, never mind that there have been zealous advocates here who felt that extending the right of suffrage to Filipino-Americans would symbolize our ability to influence the course of events there. That's turning out to be a lot of balderdash (or nonsense).
It's obvious, from the few people interviewed here, that there is either lack of interest or complete apathy to the call for overseas voting. I'm willing to bet that will be validated with a larger survey.
The over-all lesson to be learned here is that while most of us still care about the Philippines, very few have any desire to participate in elections there. Those who think there is such an entity called "Global Filipinos" must now realize that is mainly an illusion. Voting for candidates back home must be left to Filipinos who live there, not to those whose loyalties now lie in their adopted countries.
