Message to Young Voters

Dolores Sibonga, FAPAGOW Board Advisor
First Filipino American Seattle City Council member

You’d think that at my age – 89 – I wouldn’t be concerned about youth. And yet I worry that young people will sit out the November election, and we will lose whatever vestiges of democracy remain today.

So I ask you, young voters, to believe that you can set the direction for change that will give us Universal Health Care, the Green New Deal and Economic Justice.

We Filipino-Americans are 178,300 strong in the State of Washington. And we have a history of activism, from the unionism of the 20’s and 30’s to Civil Rights in the 60’s and 70’s to standing today with Black Lives Matter and putting an end to police brutality against Black men and women.

And just to show you how much your one vote can count: For about the last 100 years, one of every 100,000 votes in U.S. elections and one of every 15,000 votes in state elections “mattered.” They were cast for a candidate that led or won by one vote.

FAPAGOW can be our progressive voice for truth, equality and responsibility.

Claiming Our Brown Power This Elections 2020

Maria Batayola, FAPAGOW Board Member

We are at a crossroads.  FAPAGOW is calling for Filipinos and Filipino Americans to claim our brown power this 2020 Presidential election by voting.  The last four years, the Administration has reversed the progress we made for things we fought hard for our beloved communities: 

  • Immigration Reform. Filipinos are strong contributors to the intellect and labor of this country.  We value family.  Many of us became US Citizens to bring our families here. Yet, the Administration continues to deny our WWII Veterans from being re-unified with their family members, and punishes children of undocumented hard-working immigrants by separating them from their parents.  This is not right.  
  • Racial and Economic Justice.  Barriers to public education, employment and contracting have increased in WA state with the passage of I-200.  We are dedicated, smart and hard-working people.  Those barriers must be removed so that we as people of color, immigrants and refugees can compete fairly and rise to our potential.
  • Accessible Health, Human and Housing Services.  Effective outreach to our communities means providing information in languages that we can understand, making those services affordable, and culturally and linguistically accessible. The Administration has weakened the Affordable Care Act leaving many without health insurance.
  • Voting Rights.  We regaled our children with stories of electoral corruption back home. Now, voting in the US is made more difficult with more IDs being required, less voting places, and the defunding of the Post Office to make it difficult to deliver mail-in ballots. Most alarming of all, the Administration encourages people to commit a crime and vote twice – by mail and in person. 
  • Climate Change and COVID-19.  Many Filipinos are health and science professionals. The Administration ignores science putting our very lives in danger.  Science has shown that burning fossil fuels increases the earth’s temperature causing ice to melt and sea levels to rise causing climate disturbances in places that include the Philippines. The Administration ignores climate change.  The have weakened EPA. They’ve ignored the COVID health science-based guidance on safety resulting in high incidence of American patients and Filipino health professionals and hospital workers’ illness and death.
  • Black Lives Matter.  We shed our Anti-Blackness, voting for candidates who will advocate for Black Lives Matter decriminalization, demilitarization of police forces, and building systems that will strengthen under-served Black, Indigenous, People of Color, refugees and immigrants. 

Now let’s vote for the love of our Filipino and Filipino American communities.  For more information and how to get involved, go to Facebook FAPAGOW.

Note: Founded in 1952 as the Filipino American Citizens, the Filipino American Political Action Group of Washington (FAPAGOW) is a progressive non-partisan organization that advocates for: climate and environmental justice; racial and economic justice in education, employment, and contracting; and culturally and language accessible and affordable health, human and housing services.