Editorial

What’s at stake

DESPITE the historical, cultural and economic ties between the US and the Philippines, elections in the US do not usually attract too much attention here in the country, perhaps because most Filipinos are just too busy eking out a living.

We might easily remember the Kerry vs. Bush presidential elections of 2004, which attracted more than the usual coverage from local media, not unexpectedly because of its consequences on the war in Iraq, which was the raging issue at the time, and because, well, it is the election of a US president. But who cares about the midterm US congressional elections that will be held today? Why should ordinary Filipinos care if the Democrats win one or both houses of the US Congress, as some pollsters and pundits have predicted?

The answer is, simply, we should. Whether we like it or not, what the US government does has a direct impact on the lives of Filipinos here or abroad. Some estimates put the number of Filipinos migrating annually to the US at 70,000. There are close to five million Filipinos living and working in the US and they make up the second-largest immigrant population after the Mexicans, and the second largest Asian-American community after the Chinese-Americans. Filipinos have one of the highest average per household incomes in the US, even higher than the levels of native-born Americans. They are also the highest US dollar remitters to the Philippines, with remittances reaching a record $5.6 billion last year. The US has traditionally been the Philippines’ largest foreign investor, with about $6.6 billion in estimated investment as of end-2005 according to official data from the US Department of Commerce.

In 1986, Ronald Reagan launched a huge amnesty program that allowed earned legalization, amnesty or registry for around 3.6 million illegal aliens in the US; and thousands of Filipinos were eventually able to acquire US citizenship.

In 2005, the US Congress set aside an additional 50,000 visas for foreign nurses and their families. Guess who were the top applicants? Filipino nurses, of course. The Philippines sends more nurses to the United States than any other country. In the past nine months alone, around 10,290 Filipino nurses took the US National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) for nurses. The Philippines would be a direct beneficiary (or casualty depending on one’s perspective on nursing migration) should the US Congress fully approve the recently passed Senate provision removing the immigration cap on foreign nurses.    

The point is, again, most of the policies and actions the US government chooses to take will carry more than a whiff of consequences for us Filipinos. So when some 201 million Americans troop to the US polls today, there is something at stake for us too.

As former senator Ernesto Herrera correctly pointed out in a recent statement, how Americans will vote today will impact not just on Filipinos in the US but on those working here as well.

The former senator, one of the pillars of the local labor movement, said a Democratic Party victory in the polls will mean more investments and jobs being sent to the Philippines.
“The Democrats have already vowed they will raise the federal minimum wage once they seize control of Congress. This will drive American companies to accelerate the transfer of more jobs to lower-cost locations such as the Philippines.

“By this we mean not just technology-enabled service jobs in business process outsourcing, but also in semiconductor and electronics, among other industries,” he said.

The current federal hourly minimum wage in the US is $5.15. The Democrats want this raised to at least $7.25. This would mean automatic increases in all but four US states where the hourly floor wage is already $7.25 or higher.

Herrera noted that export-driven chipmakers and outsourcing providers have been key drivers of Philippine economic and employment growth. The Philippine semiconductor and electronics industry, buoyed by brisk global demand for mobile telephones, high-definition TV sets, computers, game consoles and digital video players, have so far produced 26,167 new jobs this year, mainly from expansion projects. The industry directly employs over 400,000 Filipinos and generated $27.3 billion in foreign sales in 2005. This accounted for 66 percent of the country’s total exports of $41.2 billion that year. Industry exports include magnetic heads, hard disk drives, digital signal processors, liquid crystal displays, optical disk drives and broad line of components for consumer and industrial electronic products.

The large US-based chipmakers with rapidly growing Philippine operations include Intel Corp., Texas Instruments Inc., National Semiconductor Corp., Fairchild Semiconductor International Co. and AMIS Holdings Inc.

As for technology-enabled outsourcing services, these are projected to engage up to 1,082,800 Filipinos by 2010, according to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines.

IBM Corp., Accenture Ltd., Affiliated Computer Services Inc., Convergys Corp., TeleTech Holdings Inc., NCO Group Inc., Sykes Enterprises Inc., ICT Group Inc., SITEL Corp., PeopleSupport Inc., APAC Customer Services Inc. and Sutherland Global Services Inc. are among the US-based outsourcing providers with booming Philippine units.

In today’s polls, all 435 seats in the US House of Representatives and 33 out of 100 seats in the US Senate will be contested, along with 36 out of 50 state gubernatorial posts. The Democrats require only net gains of six and 15 seats to command the Senate and the House, respectively. If we are to believe Herrera, a Democratic majority in one house or both would redound positively to the Philippine government’s efforts to boost foreign direct investment and address joblessness. 

Why should we care about today’s US elections? The question should be, why should we not?