Second-generation Fil-Ams dismayed by PHL poll results

Administration candidate Francis Escudero topped the Senate race in the U.S. with 9,464 votes followed by:
 

Alan Peter Cayetano, 9,174

Grace Poe, 9,029

Loren Legarda, 8,696

Aquilino Pimentel III 8,448

Bam Aquino, 8,267

Juan Edgardo Angara, 7,735

Richard Gordon, 7,291

Ramon Magsaysay Jr., 7,187

Riza Hontiveros, 6,983

Antonio Trillanes, 6,521

Juan Miguel Zubiri, 4,908

 

Ten of the winners were administration candidates except for Gordon and Zubiri, prompting Ambassador Jose Cuisia to hail the results as one of “support for government reforms.”
 

Young Filipino Americans are not so sure. Many of them cast a glance at the May 13 midterm elections in the Philippines and dismissed the results with a shrug.

 

“Second-Gens find the political process in the Philippines potentially inspiring, but the usual election results an unfortunate joke,” said Steven Raga, founder of the nonprofit for young Filipino Americans called Pilipino American Unity for Progress or UniPro.

 

He explained, “We take time out of our already busy lives to study the candidates and their platforms, then find out a former president who resigned a decade earlier just won mayorship of Manila; or the daughter of the vice president is now a senator with almost zero credentials to speak of.”

 

Voting remains a civic duty, Raga told The FilAm, but electing qualified candidates rather than the last name is “even more important.”

 

Second-generation FilAms are “indifferent,” said Bryan Jaco Gallarde, a project associate at the Dewey Square Group political consulting firm. Many assume the Philippine government and its electrical process are corrupt, and many “don’t pay attention.”

 

“They are still struggling to figure out their FilAm identity in the U.S. political space” to seriously pay attention to Philippine elections, he said. “And if they’re paying attention, they’re annoyed.”

 

Spoken word artist Kilusan Bautista said corruption in Philippine politics is “no different” from that in the United States and other governments around the globe. The political families of Jojo Binay and Nancy Binay are not too far off from George Herbert Bush and George Walker Bush or athletes-turned-politicians Arnold Schwarzenegger and Manny Pacquiao and actors-becoming-presidents Ronald Regan and Joseph Estrada.

 

“Nepotism and pop culture,” he said, are “unfortunately the modern forms of democracy.”
 

Ryan Letada, founder of the NextDayBetter community, said his initial reaction was “business as usual,” but as a social entrepreneur, being “resourceful” in the face of challenges is what he would like to build on.

 

“Ineffective and effective political leaders are part of our reality historically and, most likely, into the future,” he said. “The goal is to be resourceful and entrepreneurial despite the political, social, economic or environmental challenges. Create solutions that push our community forward.” – Cristina DC Pastor, The FilAm