I was reading the blog entry of my sister, Noemi Dado, about Barack Obama being elected as the 44th President of the United States. She had included a quick and easy primer for her Filipino readers about the electoral process, titled: “Electing a US President in Plain English.” During her visit last month, Philippines-based Noemi had grappled with understanding US elections since she was only familiar with the mechanics of the “popular vote.”
I have included this video tutorial from YouTube that Noemi used. Although we won’t be electing a US President soon, we can use this video to help educate future voters.
Thank you to Rodel Rodis for alerting us about the YouTube videos that TFC’s Balitang America uploaded for interested viewers who missed its featured “Presidential Debate Night” discussion among Filipino Americans about their choices for the next President of the United States.
Formed as a non-partisan program, NaFFAA’s FilVOTE not only aims to register Filipinos who are American citizens, but to make sure they go out and vote. In the 2004 presidential elections, only 594,000 Filipino Americans voted - a decline of 7 percent because 122,000 registered voters did not cast their ballots. “Potentially, there are 715,000 Filipino Americans, or 40 percent of our total number, who can be mobilized to go to the polls,” says Gloria Caoile, co-chair of FilVOTE. “But we need to register them if they haven’t done so and educate them on issues that directly affect our community so they will appreciate what’s at stake, especially for our children and families.”
Many of NaFFAA’s leadership showed up for this televised discussion sometime in mid-October, 2008.
Something to think about: When there are more Filipino Americans who take the time to speak out about what matters to them, political leaders listen. When more Filipino Americans mobilize its own communities to “rock the vote,” they allow their influence and affluence to shine brightly in the arenas of public opinion and legislative decisions.
Note: Any listed titles after people’s names are for identification purposes only.
A studio full Filipino Democrats, Republicans, and Undecideds comment on the Presidential debate, and talk about who they’ll vote for.
“How many of you think that race is a very strong factor among the Fil-Am community in making a decision in this election?” Gel Santos-Relos asked the audience.
One Filipino Republican, Rudy Asercion, and One Filipino Democrat, Rodel Rodis, duke during a special Balitang America Debate watching party shortly after the 3rd and Final Presidential Debate.
Special guest star in this segment is Ed Navarra, aka NaFFAA Region 3’s chair.
Rudy Asercion is NaFFAA Region 8’s City Chair for San Francisco (Member, American Legion War Memorial Commission) and Rodel Rodis is one of NaFFAA’s founders (Member, Board of Trustees, City College of San Francisco).
This list is by no means complete. We are featuring three NaFFAA members from Region 8 who are running for political office. Since NaFFAA, as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, cannot endorse any political candidate, this entry is considered informational We support the political empowerment activities of our members, affiliates, and supporters. We hope that more and more Filipino Americans will step up to the plate and volunteer for public service and community service, thus going step by step in their learning curve toward political empowerment. The earlier we start, the earlier we get to be on that table!
