By Don Flordeliza, Jr.
Concerned OFWs and Filipino expats from different parts of the world are now becoming conscious and fully aware of not only the power of their dollar remittances, but of the power of their votes as well.
Their separate struggless in defending and promoting the welfare of Filipino communities in their respective host countries, and the experiences they have gained in doing so, made them cognizant of the reality of this powerful strength that lays dormant in them if applied to Philippine politics. FilAm participation in the Obama campaign and historic triumph, leaves the excitement and hopeful antipication alive among the broad-based FilAm community.
Acclaimed by several Filipino presidents as the country’s “modern heroes,” OFW remittances kept the Philippine economy afloat allowing it to weather through several economic crises of regional and global magnitude. What saddens the OFW community is the fact that our economy is being plundered by an abusive few, as shown by the series of corruption scandals that rocked the present administration.
Faced once more with a global economic crisis that threatens the jobs of many of them, and faced further with the challenge of having an effective re-integration program that could usher them back into the mainstream of homeland economy through legislation, OFW leaders have decided to delve into the political arena.
It could be remembered that one of the senatorial bets of the Kapatiran Party, Dr. Martin Bautista, decided to come home after 17 years abroad. But while some of them had silently gone home in the past and ran into public offices with the desire to contribute their shares in improving the lot of their hometowns, this time big OFW organizations went a step further by organizing national political parties.
Foremost among these political parties is the Partidong Pandaigdigang Pilipino (PPP) that plans to field senatorial candidates in 2010. Another one in the process of being registered and accreditted is the Democratic Party of the Philippines (DPP) that plans to field presidential and vice-presidential candidates. It proposes to form coalitions with other political parties to complete a slate of national and local candidates under a broader “Ticket of National Unity to Save Our Nation.” It actively supports the efforts of civil-society, religious and other multi-sector organizations to forge a “Third Force” of alternative leaders against trapo politics.
There is strong reason to believe that if the OFW’s dollar-remittances is playing a great role in keeping the country’s economy afloat, OFW contributions and votes would also play a great role in catapulting a moral and ethical president into Malacanan in 2010. They might indeed be the missing link that would finally make this possible, and put an end to the cancer that eats us up from the inside - a culture of corruption that permeats all levels of Philippine society and governance.
Like the noble members of the Propaganda Movement of old scattered in Hongkong, Germany and Spain, today’s OFWs are coming home and forming their own La Liga Filipinas. With political will and focused determination, the OFWs’ historic decision to take part in Philippine governance serves as the epitome of their effective re-integration into the mainstream of Philippine society.
Don Flordeliza, Jr.
Founder, Movement to Save Our Nation
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