By: Glynn Galla

As the election in the Philippine heats up, we Filipinos abroad have also a big responsibility to exercise our civil rights. The Republic Act No. 9189 or also known as the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003 is one of the many privileges that we Filipinos must take part of it.

Since the law was implemented a decade ago, how are we exercising this freedom? An about 11% of the total population in the Philippines are working and residing abroad, according to the 2010 national census, this margin may not be huge enough but a potent number to make a difference in the political system of the Philippines if all of us would exercise the right to vote.

Taking Canada as an example, there are nearly half a million immigrants and workers in this country alone as of 2010, and according to our Philippine Embassy in Toronto, the registered Absentee Voters is low and close to half of this OAV had participated in the actual voting process that ballots were mailed back to the embassy in Toronto and in consulate in Vancouver on the 2010 elections. As OAV we are only allowed to vote on national level namely from President, Vice-President, Senators and down to Party list Representatives, respectively, we do still plays a role in this process.

Philippines is still the place that we still belong, leaving our fatherland don’t mean that we also forget our rights, our responsibility as a true countrymen, our being citizen of the Philippines doesn’t end only of sending money back home. As they say, Philippines’ best export is its people and this people had to show that they care to their country.

We all know with the busy time we have, everything needs to be scheduled, everything should be on time management. As soon as the morning comes and the evening rush all of us needs to do something for our living and our families, but what is a 5 minutes or 10 minutes to register or even pay visit in our consulates and embassy once, its nothing compare to our forefathers that had fought for our rights and freedom that we are enjoying it in our generation today.

We should think big that one vote could go a long way, if we work for it together. The Philippines have great hopes for us, not just for economic reasons but also to its future, Our Children’s Future.