A Halloween chill hovered on the lobby of the Philippine consulate in San Francisco as the last registrant for voting in the Philippines stepped out the front door and descended the concrete steps.

By 5:00 p.m., and after two hours of waiting for the 4,558th registrant, a security guard closed the door on what looked like the highest record number of Filipinos who registered for absentee voting: 4,557.

That last person was 83-year-old Roberta dela Rama, who shuffled toward the entrance at 3:00 p.m.

Dela Rama (not her real name), a spouse of a World War II veteran, didn’t know nor didn’t care if she was the last registrant. She came to the consulate, she said, to apply for dual citizenship, and not to register to vote for the May 2007 elections in the Philippines.

Interviewed at the consulate’s front steps along 447 Sutter Street, Dela Rama added she only knew this was the last day for the registration by chance. “I registered anyway,” Dela Rama said.

“Filipinos here are too busy to sign up,” she said by way of apologizing for the low turn-out of her fellow Filipinos. Based on the total number of registrants, an average of 17 Filipinos a day signed up to vote in the national and local elections in May. The consulate officially began registering absentee voters on October 1, 2005.

Other Filipinos interviewed by the OFW Journalism Consortium said they were discouraged by the distance between registration and voting centers from their homes.
Nonetheless, there were more registrants for the 2007 elections than in 2004. Exactly 7,400 Pinoys in the U.S. signed up from October 1, 2005 to October 31, 2006 for a U.S.-wide total of 10,633 (counting the 3,233 who registered three years ago).

San Francisco topped the list of Philippine posts with a total of 4,557 registrants out of a total estimate of 300,000 Filipinos in this consular jurisdiction.

Rhyme, reasons

Not giving their real name in exchange for an interview reflects deeper issues than simply signing up to vote.

Green card holder Arnold (not his real name) was in town to soak in the sights with fiancée Rebecca. A qualified voter, Arnold says he works as a physical therapist in Ventura County, a 69-minute drive from the Philippine consulate in Los Angeles. But, he pointed out, even if the consulate happened to be next door, “I will not go there.”

He argued, “Why will I vote when I am not in the Philippines? If one is here in the U.S. earning a living, voting for the homeland will be the last thing on your mind.” What’s top of mind for Arnold is being “here to have a secure future, and then enjoy.”

Although he still can register in 2009 for a possible presidential election in 2010, he says he won’t. “By that time, I will be a U.S. citizen.”

Indeed, securing their U.S. citizenship appears on the priority list of Filipinos, aside from working hard and earning money.

Take Seattle-based Anita Sese-Schon’s case.

In San Francisco for a reunion with friends last August, Sese-Schon took a side trip to the Philippine consulate to swear in as a dual citizen. However, she forgot to register as an overseas absentee voter.

Even when the Commission on Elections extended the August 31 deadline another two months, Sese-Schon said she is “not crazy” to spend another $200 airfare to return to San Francisco. Registrants must make a personal appearance at the Consulate.

San Jose residents and naturalized US citizens Cecilia Soriano and Celso Costelo –their real names– just heard about overseas voting through the OFW Journalism Consortium. Costelo said he suspects Filipinos in Santa Clara county (the southern part of the Bay Area here) are largely unaware about absentee voting.

However, Soriano, an executive assistant at Cisco Systems, added, “I am still concerned about the Philippines, and there are many of us who still want to be a part of [overseas voting].”

Distance between us

Sociologist Peter Chua of San Jose State University agreed. The low turnout of absentee voters does not mean “complete apathy” to the Philippines.
“It is just that many Filipinos are turned off with the economic situation and the corruption back home,” Chua explained.

He also echoed most of our interviewees’ reasons for not registering – the distance of the “nearest” diplomatic office and the low awareness on overseas voting.
Even Vice Consul Anthony Mandap is dissatisfied.

“You can never be proud with having only this number of registrants when there are over 300,000 Filipinos here in San Francisco alone.” He said the San Francisco consulate would have considered the absentee voting registration a success if they had pulled in 75,000 Pinoys.

If the success rate is precise, the actual number of eligible Filipino voters in the U.S. isn’t. Determining the Pinoys from among the estimated 2,586,508 Philippine- and U.S.-born Filipinos here “is hard,” Mandap added.

Philippine government data show 2,326,675 permanent residents (including naturalized Filipinos) and 111,835 temporary workers in the U.S., while the 2000 U.S. Census cited by the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., tallied 1,369,070 Filipinos born in the Philippines.

Law blow

Worldwide, 142,015 registered for the 2007 elections of the estimated 501,312 Filipinos abroad qualified to vote.

From the 2006 registrants, 39,223 signed up at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and 47,699 at the offices of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). Both groups include Filipinos who have yet to go abroad for the first time.

Republic Act 9189 (Overseas Voting Act) stipulates that an absentee voter must be a Filipino citizen or a dual citizen. However, RA 9189 also contains a provision viewed by some as inimical to their permanent resident status.

Sociologist Chua cites the provision where permanent residents must sign an affidavit of intent “to resume actual physical presence in the Philippines not later than three years from approval of their application for registration, and (they should have not) applied for citizenship in another country.”

Thus, those who registered in 2003 for the 2004 elections should be in the Philippines right now to resume their residency.

“[That] is crazy,” said Victor Barrios, president of the advocacy group Global Filipinos. He added that the ongoing amendments to the law should “eliminate the affidavit for immigrants to return, consistent with the spirit of the Supreme Court ruling on the residency requirement for dual citizens.”

But the elderly Roberta dela Rama welcomes a trip back to her native San Carlos City in Negros Occidental. In fact, she eagerly anticipates coming home this year.

Though in the dark about overseas voting until she serendipitously walked into the consulate to apply for dual citizenship on the last day of registration, Dela Rama didn’t need convincing about signing up “to exercise (my) right to vote.”?

OFW Journalism Consortium and the Yuchengco Media Fellows.