Home thoughts about active citizenship from abroad

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Loraine Fong-Tabcao has been a domestic helper overseas for 25 years. She wants to give her children a better future — a mission she may not accomplish in the Philippines.

 At the start of her years working for different families in Europe and the Middle East Loraine had wished to settle down in her hometown of Baguio City as soon as her children finished college. Now some of her children are already working, yet Loraine’s dream of retiring remains a dream. She is with a new employer in Kuala Lumpur because life is hard in the Philippines where progress, she lamented, is hampered by corruption.

“Naiiyak ako sa sitwasyon ng mga kababayan natin (The situation of our countrymen drives me to tears),” Loraine said tearfully. “Kung nababalitaan ko ang corruption at yung ekonomiya lumalala, nawawalan ako ng pagasa. Hindi ako pwedeng umuwi. Anong klaseng buhay ang dadatnan ko sa Pilipinas? (Whenever I hear about corruption and economic problems, I lose hope. I can’t go home. What kind of life awaits me in the Philippines?),” she cried.

I met Loraine during ABS-CBN Regional Network Group’s Kapamilya Fiesta World Concert at Berjaya Times Square Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. She went with fellow overseas Filipino workers to watch Filipino actors Jericho Rosales and Gabby Concepcion, and Malaysian actress Carmen Soo perform. Kapamilya Fiesta World has reached out to Filipinos in Barcelona, London, Dubai, Rome and New York by giving them a taste of home through free concerts, games and prizes in the ambience of their fondly-missed Philippine fiesta.

For its Kuala Lumpur leg, Kapamilya Fiesta World introduced Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo: Ako Ang Simula (BMPM), a movement for clean elections by ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs. It encourages citizens to register as Boto Patrollers and report election irregularities using mobile phones or the Internet. The movement has been widely (and warmly) received nationwide and this is the first time it is formally launched overseas.

Loraine wasted no time signing up. She believes she may not be able to vote in May 2010, but being a Boto Patroller enables her to be active in her country’s affairs. OFWs go through very difficult experiences abroad but Loraine bewails that the arduous journey begins even before they leave home.

“Bago ka makaalis ng Pilipinas maglalagay ka pa sa gobyerno. Sa mga opisyal natin at sa mga pulitiko: Sana baguhin na ang sistema. Huwag n’yo naman isipin ang mga sarili n’yo lang (Our government offices demand bribes before we are allowed to leave the country. I am appealing to our officials and politicians to change the system. Stop thinking about yourselves),” Loraine said.

While BMPM is primarily about election vigilance, ABS-CBN envisions its evolution into a culture change campaign, where Filipinos like Loraine can express their thoughts on their leaders or how their government is run.

“Matagal ko nang hinihintay na mabigyan kaming mga OFW ng pagkakataong maiparating sa ating mga opisyal ng gobyerno ang aming mga saloobin (I have been waiting for an opportunity that allows us OFWs to let our government officials know what we feel),” Loraine said.

About 200 OFWs signed up as Boto Patrollers in Kuala Lumpur. They, too, press for change in the country from across the miles.

 Shalymer Formaran, a Filipina call center agent working in the Malaysian capital, believes if anything, signing up is a gesture of unity with those fighting for a better country back home.

Shalymer and her Filipino co-workers in Kuala Lumpur also deplored a reality that many young Filipinos like them endure being away from loved ones to seek better jobs abroad.

“There are a lot of call centers in the Philippines but the pay is a little better here,” said Shalymar. “There’s no place like home if only job opportunities are better in the Philippines,” she added.

About 30,000 Filipinos live and work in Malaysia. Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia Victoriano Lecaros said figures being officially used, such as this, may still be conservative as many Filipinos enter Malaysia’s fringes illegally.

“The bulk of Filipinos is not here in Kuala Lumpur but in other regions. Aside from domestic helpers we have office and service professionals as well as Filipinos married to Malaysians and raising their families here. Of course there are those who live or work illegally in Sabah,” Lecaros said.

Many Filipinos try their luck in Malaysia because it is closer to home yet the prospects of better earnings are not as bleak. Some even find this Southeast Asian neighbor “livable” because crime is low and government services are efficient.

Dr. Joel Tanchuling Zan, a practicing Filipino physician in Kuala Lumpur, describes life in Malaysia as promising and comfortable. “Infrastructure is superb, the economy is booming, and public services such as healthcare are available. I like living here,” Zan notes. He said this beaming with pride while pointing to the irony that many Filipinos like him have been drawn to a country which, only decades earlier, was just as famished for progress as their own.