Why I would rather vote for an overseas household worker than an incumbent

Outside Looking In

I thought of writing about this but didn’t feel the urgency so I left it in my mental inbox for next year, a month or weeks before we have our 2010 national and local elections. However, the announcement that Loren Legarda will run (yet again) for vice president has made me forego my planned topic on overseas Filipino networking. It isn’t that I despise her (how could I when I don’t personally know her?), but her undying interest in aiming for a much higher position in politics is typical of most incumbents and I just have to write about this.

“… (B)e the change we wish to see …,” once said Mahatma Gandhi. But these words don’t translate into action for me. I am very critical of our government and all that I do whether I am home or abroad is complain (for now, that is). Like I always gripe about the fact that millions of our kababayans are poor, yet I don’t give every beggar who harasses me for money a mere change. I don’t even donate an insignificant part of my salary to charitable institutions in the Philippines. I do hel prelatives and friends financially from time to time, but I do know that I can do more yet I choose not to.

That is why I mainly blame our public officials for the chronic existence of poverty in our country. They are, in my opinion, in the best position to help the poor because they have all of the resources at their disposal such as money and policy to alleviate their plight, but they aren’t doing anything about it. Official estimates in 2006 show that 32.9 percent of the Filipino population live below the poverty threshold of P15,507 per year (imagine surviving on less than P43 per day!).

In 2000, this figure was 33 percent. In short, during a six-year period, only 0.1 percent of the people had experiened statistical improvement in their lives. Given that we hold our national and local elections every six years, this period covered politicians who were elected before and after 2004.

In other words, what were they able to do (or, more appropriately, didn’t do) to help our poor kababayans? Have they become the change they wish to see? Do they actually visualize a Philippines that is poverty-free in the first place? And now that most of our presidential and vice presidential aspirants are these same public servants – the incumbents, what else can they do for our country in the future that they aren’t doing in the present?

So if you ask me, I would rather vote for a neophyte in politics than someone who is already in politics. Yes, there is the risk of not knowing how this person will fare but there is a much greater risk in knowing that an incumbent has done nothing. In fact, I would cast my ballot (maybe electronically) for any overseas Filipino household worker wishing to run for political office. I have encountered them in the places where I have traveled and I have become friends with them in the cities where I have lived, and I must say that they are on the top of my list of people who I both admire and respect.

For one thing, overseas household workers shed their blood, sweat, and tears (and still do) to be where they are now. I have known how most of them had to sell all of their properties, borrow money left and right or both so that they could pay for their placement fees. And I know how some others are being abused by their employers but they couldn’t leave them because they have no other option except to stay. As far as these incumbents are concerned, they have most probably utilized their guns, goons, and gold to be elected. They are arguably abusing their power to enrich themselves and their families, so it is clearly not an option to leave their lucrative posts.

Some overseas household workers do “steal” not to become rich but to be “kind” to others. I am one of those who have received their acts of kindness (remember the condiments and toiletries?...). I am not in any moral position to tell them what to and not to do. But as a columnist, I can write that they chose to become thieves – a Robin Hood, I suppose – for other people. As for these incumbents, I can go back to writing about Loren as an example and remember reading an article in 2007 that she finally bought a house, I mean, a mansion in the exclusive Forbes Park. I forget how long she has been a senator, but with only a P35,000 per month salary, she has probably been in power, I mean, public service for a century to have at least made that down payment on her new property.

Finally, some overseas household workers may do reprehensible things behind their employer’s back, but they still do a good job in their chosen profession. I believe that their amos aren’t at all dense in not figuring out that there are, for instance, extra items on the grocery receipt. So I have yet to know of one kababayan who was fired because of this. Unlike them, these incumbents are most likely doing things in front of the people they are supposed to serve. Moreover, their track record remains a track without the record, and their value addition to the government and, hence, our country is zero or negative. Another difference is that once elected to public office, we cannot fire them because they are unfortunately there to stay.

What really sets our overseas household workers apart from these incumbents who choose to remain in power and aspire to have more of it by running for a higher post, is that the former are selfless, have good intentions for other people, and are conscientious when it comes to their work. I am already 34 years old but I am still not a registered voter. Being out of the country for 12 years is no excuse because we now have absentee voting. What is keeping me from exercising my right to suffrage is that I have yet to wait for an overseas household worker to run for politics. With all of these incumbents (as well as entertainers) seeking another term in public office, none of them is definitely going to get my vote. - Jerick Aguilar, philstar.com, November 22, 2009 12:00 AM