Absentee voting
and Filipino TNTs



THE PHILIPPINES is a surreal country. One night while at the lobby of the Manila Peninsula Hotel, I witnessed the regal entrance of Imelda Marcos, dressed in a flowing emerald gown surrounded by a small coterie of what's left of her Blue Ladies, holding court like the aging actress Norma Desmond in a scene from "Sunset Boulevard." Just a few hours before, while stalled in Manila traffic, a young woman, prematurely aged by her poverty, tapped at the glass window of the air-conditioned car I was in, begging for alms while her baby was sucking milk from her exposed breast.

Incredible wealth and unimaginable poverty existing on the same plane, oblivious to each other. Also on the same plane -- the contradiction of the Philippines as an insular country of 7,100 islands and as a global nation with 8 million Filipinos -- a tenth of the population -- residing and working abroad.

Insular and global concerns constantly clash in the formulation of Philippine policy and law. Nowhere was this tension more evident than in the debate over the overseas voting bill.

The 1987 Philippine Constitution mandated the Philippine Congress to enact legislation extending the right to vote to overseas Filipinos. But it took five Congresses, four Presidents, 64 filed absentee voting bills and 16 long years before Congress finally passed one.

Why did it take so long?

I found answers to this question in my discussion with Makati Congressman Teodoro "Teddy Boy" Locsin Jr., the principal opponent of the overseas voting bill. I knew him from having written a weekly column for his paper, The Daily Globe, back in 1991.

It was a chance encounter at a Makati "WOW Curacol" parade sponsored by the Department of Tourism and the City of Makati where Teddy Boy and I renewed acquaintances before we were escorted to a stage to view a dance competition at the Glorietta Mall.

On that stage, Teddy Boy and I discussed the absentee voting bill for more than an hour even as we were constantly interrupted by assorted VIPs who would go up to the stage to shake his hand.

Somehow Teddy Boy had this idea in his head that Filipinos who traveled overseas had "abandoned the Philippines." I stoutly protested his characterization. I told him what I assumed he knew that overseas Filipinos leave the Philippines in search of employment opportunities abroad.

I argued that, in fact, it is the Philippines which has abandoned the overseas Filipinos. I related to him the situation of the more than 500,000 Filipino TNTs ("tago nang tago," referring to Filipinos without legal papers. "Tago" means "hide" in Filipino.) in the US.

They are the most exploited, the most politically marginalized of our kababayans abroad, living in constant dread of being picked up by INS agents who would imprison them in some distant INS facility before deporting them back to the Philippines in chains in special absconder ("Con Air") flights.

These Filipino TNTs, together with other overseas Filipinos, remit more than 8 billion dollars a year to the Philippines and yet, the Philippine government has shown little concern for their welfare and has not advocated on their behalf with the US government.

But look at Mexico, I told Teddy Boy. In 1999, Mexico extended absentee voting rights to the 4 million Mexican TNTs in the US. Candidate Vicente Fox won the 2000 Mexican presidential elections because of their heavy support. Since his election, President Fox has repeatedly pressed the US government to legalize the status of the Mexican TNTs.

If Filipino TNTs had the same voting rights, the Philippine government would be lobbying the US government to ease up on the harassment of Filipinos and to provide Filipino TNTs with whatever benefits that may be extended to their Mexican counterparts. The Philippine consulates would not be inquiring into their legal status before providing them with renewed passports.

"Well, I am not opposed to allowing them the right to vote in Philippine elections. My issue is with permanent residents," Teddy Boy clarified.

"Our Constitution confers the right to vote only upon Filipino citizens who shall have resided in the Philippines for at least one year and in the place where they propose to vote for at least six months immediately preceding the election," he said.

How's that? I asked. "Many Filipino TNTs have lived in the US for five to 10 years and can't even temporarily visit the Philippines. And, conversely, there are many Filipino permanent residents who live in the Philippines and who only occasionally visit the US so they can maintain their green cards," I said.

Also, many Filipinos become permanent residents so they can legally live and work in the US but have no intention of becoming US citizens. Why should they be denied the right to vote? And how could Filipino TNTs vote with that constitutional provision?

Teddy Boy's legal arguments reflected a mindset that I found most disturbing. He represents Makati, the country's most cosmopolitan city and the center of Philippine interaction with the global economy. He should know better. In contrast, the most reliable advocate for overseas Filipinos has been Ilongo Congressman Augusto "Boboy" Syjuco, and yet he hails from the island of Panay (but check out boboysyjuco.com).

I do not know if our discussion influenced his views in any way but, two weeks later, Teddy Boy worked out a compromise with Boboy that ensured passage of the bill. Immigrants, TNTs and other overseas Philippine citizens would be allowed to vote in the 2004 elections as long as they sign an affidavit declaring that they would return to the Philippines to "resume actual physical permanent residence" within three years of approval of their registration as absentee voters. They must also declare that they have not applied for citizenship in another country.

Under the compromise, if the overseas Filipino voter does not return to the Philippines within three years and then votes in the 2007 Philippine senatorial elections, he may be subject to the same criminal penalties as that of a Philippine "flying voter."

Teddy Boy and Boboy. Imelda and the impoverished mother with the baby sucking milk from her breast. That's the Philippines in a nutshell.

(Rodel Rodis is the Northern California chair of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations. Send comments to Rodislaw@yahoo.com.)