Connie Vacalares knows how polarizing and intense the election campaign in the Philippines has become. She hears about the all-day divisions of her Filipino customers at her Asian grocery store, Manila BBQ SuperMart, in New Westminster, British Columbia.
“Families, friends, they are separated,” she said.
They are separated because the leader of the race, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., is the son of the famous dictator, whose 20-year tyranny ended in an uprising in the 1980s.
Some people vehemently support Marcos Jr., despite his family history, while others despise him.
Some Vacalares customers can’t actually vote – they gave up that right when they became Canadians. But they come to her shop to offer another type of election currency: money.
In particular, remittances. This is the way the diaspora sends money home, through SuperMart transfers, and is a common way for unsuitable Filipino voters to vote through family and friends.
Whether with money or votes, Filipinos in Canada were encouraged to get more involved in this controversial election, despite the distance, and rallies for candidates in Winnipeg and Calgary attracted hundreds of supporters.
Influence of the family
Due to the rules on citizenship in the Philippines, when a Filipino becomes a citizen of another country, he loses his civil and political rights in the Philippines, which include the right to vote. Eventually, one can regain one’s citizenship by filling out an application and paying a fee, but translation can be a faster form of political influence.
Susanna Lorenzo says she is concerned about the younger generation in the Philippines and has tried to influence her family to vote for Ferdinand (Bongbong) Marcos Jr., who she says is “really qualified”. (Andrew Lee / CBC)
Billions of dollars are sent to the Philippines each year by foreign workers around the world, according to the Philippine Immigration Bureau.
Manila BBQ SuperMart processes money transfer payments every day of the week. Vacalares says he talks to people every day about the purpose of their payment, and politics has been around a lot lately.
“The voice of someone here in Canada is very strong,” she said. “They can influence their family [because] they are the ones who give them their allowances. ”
The other way to run in elections, of course, is by voting.
In this election, more than 1.6 million voters around the world will vote, according to the country’s election commission. That includes 90,000 registered voters across Canada, many of whom are concentrated in four Canadian provinces – Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba, according to Census profile 2016 by ethnic origin.
The dictator’s son at the helm
The May 9th election will determine the new leader of the Philippines, with President Rodrigo Duterte’s six-year term coming to an end.
There are many candidates running for president, including boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, but most voters point to two favorites: Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Lenny Robredo.
The presidential candidate, former Senator Ferdinand (Bongbong) Marcos Jr., in the center, the son of the late dictator, greeted the crowd during a pre-election rally in Quezon City, Philippines on April 13. (Aaron Favila / Associated Press)
Ferdinand Marcos Jr., also known as Bongbong Marcos or BBM, is at the forefront of opinion polls. He is the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who was ousted in 1986.
He is also the preferred candidate for Susanna Lorenzo in New Westminster, who says she is doing everything possible to influence her family to vote for him and his party.
Lorenzo chanted “BBM, BBM” as he sent remittances to the family at Manila BBQ SuperMart.
Lorenzo cannot vote because she is a Canadian citizen, but says she is trying to take care of her family at home by sending money and political advice.
She says she is worried about the younger generation in the Philippines and what their future will look like as the country struggles with high inflation.
“We want the economy to continue because people are currently suffering from the pandemic.
Elected outsider
The other favorite is current Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo.
Robredo is a human rights lawyer with an outsider-style campaign that has been known for months for its enthusiastic use of pink.
Vice President Lenny Robredo, who is also celebrating his 57th birthday, spoke to the crowd during his April 23 presidential rally in Passage City, Philippines. (Aaron Favila / Associated Press)
Robredo also has a strong connection to the movement that overthrew Marcos’ dictatorship, which explains why there is so much friction between the two candidates and their supporters.
For Robredo’s supporter, Amado Mercado, these elections are personal.
The Canadian-Filipino, based in British Columbia, has vowed never to return to the Philippines if Marcos Jr. wins, due to the campaign’s ties to his father’s dictatorship and her comfort with President Duterte, whose daughter is Marcos’ vice-candidate. junior.
The legacy of the brutal regime and corruption of the Marcos years and Duterte’s human rights abuses from his bloody crusade against alleged drug dealers describe the election as a battle of “good against evil,” Mercado told the CBC.
Amado Mercado has lived in Canada for 33 years and is a registered voter abroad. He called the election in the Philippines a “generational election” and believed the result would significantly change the course of the country’s future. (GP Mendoza / CBC)
“This will be called the demise of the Philippines,” he said. “I will be so ashamed, the whole world will see how the Filipinos accepted and voted for a thief.
Youth mobilization
For some younger Canadians and Filipinos, misinformation is also an important issue in elections.
Aubrey Clarito of Richmond BC has voted for the first time and says he sees a lot of “fake news” for candidates online. She believes that younger Filipinos, with more exposure to technology and social media, are better prepared to filter out misinformation.
According to local media, there was a flood in the last weeks of the campaign, much of it in favor of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Clarito, a supporter of Robredo, is closely following the campaign and says it has been inspired by the mobilization of young people in the country over the past few weeks.
She believes younger voters will be less susceptible to what election analysts call “authoritarian nostalgia” or claims of the Philippines’ “golden age” during the years when Marcos Sr. was in power when they voted. .
Polling stations in the Philippines open on May 9th and the counting will begin as soon as the ballots are closed.
The winner can be clear within hours.
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