Why some Pinoys didn’t vote

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“Voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, one another, this country and this world.” —Sharon Salzberg

 

NOT all of the qualified 80,000 Filipino-American voters in New York City had cast their votes in the recent U.S. Presidential Election 2020.

Sources from the Confederation of Filipino-American Society for Democracy (CFSD) said about 85 percent of the Filipino population in the East Coast’s Big Apple voted for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Democratic Party candidates in the Senate and House of Representatives.

About 12 percent reportedly went for President Trump and the Republican Party, while three percent either voted for other candidates or didn’t vote.

Jo Jorgensten of the Libertarian Party and Howie Hawkins of Green Party were penciled to finish second and third, respectively, behind Mr. Biden (Democratic Party) and Mr. Trump (Republican Party).

Other presidential candidates were Gloria La Riva (Socialism and Liberation Party), Rocky De La Fuente (Alliance Party), Don Blankenship (Constitution Party), Brock Pierce (Independent), Kanye West (Birthday Party), Brian Carroll (American Solidarity), and Jade Simmons (Becoming One Nation Party).

 

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“I voted three times in the past: Obama versus McCain; Obama versus Romney; and Trump versus Clinton, but this time, I did not,” revealed Renier Dimasalang (not his real name), 56, who works as security staff in a Lower Manhattan entertainment studio.

“I felt bad that they (Republicans and Democrats) didn’t push through with the second stimulus package (for Americans who lost their jobs due to pandemic). Binibitin pa kami yun wala hindi naman nila ibinigay bago mag eleksyon (they gave us a false promise).”

Dimasalang said he and his older brother and sister, both medical frontliners in Brooklyn and Queens, respectively, “are Democrats by heart but were so disappointed (that the second stimulus did not arrive).”

The House of Representatives and the Senate failed to pass the second stimulus package before the election, thus President Donald Trump had urged the lawmakers to “go back to the negotiation table” after the election.

 

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Erlinda Sulit (not her real name), 65, of Corona, Queens said she did not vote this year “dahil nabuwisit ako sa mga kasama ko sa bahay (because I was pissed off with my companions in our apartment).”

Sulit said her husband who died two years ago was a big fan of the Democratic Party.

“We voted for Hillary (Clinton) in 2016. When my husband, who was a retired teacher (in Bataan, Philippines) died, I lost my interest in politics here in America,” narrated Sulit, a caregiver in Lexington, Manhattan.

“When I transferred to a new apartment, my three companions, all Filipinos, had convinced me to vote for President Trump and they all believed in the conspiracy theory that the Democrats are evil, thieves and perverts.”

Sulit said she pretended she believed them but decided not to vote “in order not to make them feel bad.”

Gerardo Pinto (not his real name), 53, said he and his wife, a baby-sitter in Park Avenue, Manhattan, failed to vote because they were working.

“Sayang ang dalawang boto para sana kay Biden pero alam naman namin na mananalo siya,” Pinto said. “Pinayagan naman kami ng mga boss namin na mag absent para bomoto pero we decided to work sayang kasi ang sueldo if we missed one day of work.”

 

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New York City’s Filipino population was the fourth-largest Asian ethnic group in New York City, behind Chinese, Indians and Koreans.

Relative to all residents, Filipinos in New York City were more likely to be: working-age adults, better educated, proficient in English, higher income, and living in overcrowded housing.

From 2010 to 2015, according to the Asian American Federation, the Filipino alone or in combination population in New York City increased by 5 percent from 81,200 to 85,065–faster growth than the city’s overall 4 percent increase but less than the 13 percent growth of the total Asian population.

The Filipino population alone population increased by 0.3 percent from 72,156 in 2010 to 72,398 in 2015.

New York City was home to 60 percent of New York State’s Filipino residents. The majority (54 percent) of Filipino New Yorkers lived in Queens.

The remainder lived mostly in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The share of Filipino population among the five boroughs did not appreciably change from 2010 to 2015.

The neighborhoods with the largest Filipino populations include Woodside, Elmhurst, Fresh Meadows, Jamaica Estates, and Queens Village in Queens Borough.

 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, was a former editor of two dailies in Iloilo, Philippines)