Survey showed Filipinos preferred Obama

By Rhony Laigo

LOS ANGELES – Though many Filipino-Americans must’ve picked John McCain over Barack Obama, particularly among seniors and long-time immigrants, a majority of Fil-Ams would’ve voted for Obama if a recent survey would be the basis for this behavior.

A survey released by the National Asian American Survey (NAAS), apparently the most comprehensive survey of the political views of Asian Americans ever according to them, showed that more than a third of the Filipino respondents identified themselves as Democrats as opposed to only 20 percent who claimed they are Republicans.

The same survey showed that 16 percent of Filipinos said they were independents while a high number – 29 percent – said they were non-partisans. The 4,394 telephone interview of adult Asian Americans in the NAAS survey was conducted from August 18, 2008 through September 26, 2008. Of this number, 486 said they were Filipinos.

In this historic national elections that saw the first candidate with African-American heritage win the presidency, it is not surprising that many Filipino-Americans had voted for McCain, even in the electorate-rich California, where the Republican candidate did not stand a chance.

Filipinos cited the most highly publicized reasons for choosing the 72-year-old senator from Arizona. Among these are the Iraq war, Obama’s alleged ties to terrorists and anti-American pastors, religion and the belief that he is a Muslim (even if he’s not), Obama’s lack of experience compared to McCain, and for the reason that he is black, even if they say that they are not racist.

Before the economic collapse back in early September, this writer attended a nephew’s birthday party and had conversations with two Filipino fathers – one of whom served in the U.S. Navy just like McCain, the other a medical professional. Their sons go to private high schools, both being able to afford the high tuition fees of these Catholic schools.

During the conversation, both professed that they were registered Republicans. However, they also said they could’ve gone Democrat if Obama chose Hillary Clinton as his runningmate, which revealed that the fathers’ choice were based on personalities rather than the issues facing the nation.

This writer emphasized during the debate that economic issues may have mattered more to a majority of Americans, since many have since recently been laid off. In addition, McCain at that time didn’t seem to know much about the economy. It was also in September that McCain said the fundamentals of the economy were strong – even if he meant that they were the American workers who got up in the morning, toiled daily at work until perhaps when thousands of them received a pink slip and became instant Obama converts. At least 600,000 had lost their jobs since January this year

Obviously as shown by the survey, economy became the number one concern of Asian Americans – about three-quarters of the respondents. Seventy-three percent of all surveyed who said economy is tops in their mind also said they favor Obama’s economic plan compared to 53 percent who favored that of McCain’s.

The two candidates differed largely on the tax issue. Obama’s plan calls for no increase in taxes for 95% of Americans except for the remaining 5% while McCain will continue Bush’s tax measure. Obama said those who earn more than $200,000 (for individuals) will see an increase in their taxable income (net income).

The retired Navy serviceman still voted for McCain despite the financial crisis. But like many retired and working Americans, he saw his retirement funds shrink to an amount he never thought could happen in the most powerful and richest country. Both Filipino fathers believed that McCain would win – at least initially. And that was before Sarah Palin, McCain’s runningmate, was exposed and chastised even by conservatives who labeled her an “ignoramus,” and the stock market crash.

In the same survey, half of the Filipino respondents said they wanted Americans to get out of Iraq as soon as possible. Also, half would like the federal government to provide health care for everyone.

Interestingly, while there have been several stories written about the supposed lack of willingness of Filipino-Americans to participate in local politics, the survey showed that 67% of the respondents said they discussed the presidential elections in their family. More important was the fact that 17% said they contributed to a candidate, a party of a political organization – the highest among the various Asian respondents.

Also, the survey said that across all national origin groups, more opposed than favored the changing the California Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. An outright majority, according to the survey, “opposed state Proposition 8 among Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, and Vietnamese, and a near majority of Japanese Americans (46%) and Asian Indians (47%) did so as well.”

Being mostly Roman Catholics, it is believed that many Filipinos are against Roe v. Wade – the Supreme Court decision that stated that women have the right to choose if they want to terminate unwanted pregnancy – which most Democrats promote. Though many will profess that they are pro-life, there has never been a solid Filipino stand on the issue, at least as shown by the survey.