Internet is making OFWs a major voting bloc in 2016

A Pinoy chef in a hotel in Jerusalem noticed that the feeds in his FB page are mostly about Duterte.

A volunteer in Singapore posted an invitation for a meet up in Sentosa for those rooting for Duterte. The same had been done by those organizing from Abu Dhabi to Hong Kong to California to Milan, Italy.

There is now a long list of Duterte videos in Youtube that can rival those of rock stars.

Part of Youtube listing of Duterte materials

A priest in one Catholic school in Manila wondered how Team Duterte is dominating the social media in so short a time.

Social media indeed has partly fueled the popularity of Davao Mayor Rody Duterte and his steady climb in presidential surveys. It has become a handy tool in raising awareness about the much-admired mayor of Davao, and organizing to back his Listening Tour around the country.

The role of social media in elections in other countries had long been established. Back in 2004 as blogging became popular, a French finance minister wrote "no one in France would become President unless he blogs!"

President Barack Obama has not only won over his rival John McCain in the US elections in 2008, he had beaten the money machine of the Republicans in crowdsourcing funds through the internet. This election marked the entry of many young and new voters pulled in through the power of social media. Today, Obama tweets much like most young people.

In the Philippines, the use of social media was still limited during the past two presidential races. But for the 2016 elections, it will definitely play a much bigger role. There are now also new apps available that can make election campaigns ride faster in the internet superhighway.

Connecting and networking among supporters of Mayor Duterte and his advocacy on Federalism are simply phenomenal. There are now Duterte support groups almost everywhere all over the country and around the world because of the power of the internet.

Overseas

Most OFWs connect with their relatives and friends back home through the internet. There are now 1.167 million Filipinos abroad who are registered under the absentee voting law. That's a far cry though from the estimated over 11 million who are out there toiling to send home money to their families. Most of them have lost hope in our political system. They left precisely disillusioned by the lack of opportunities in our country and shunned the circus-like elections here.

Moreover, there is a low turn out of OFW votes due to several factors such as difficulty to leave work, distance to polling areas in embassies and consular offices, etc.

But today and in the elections next year, it appears that just like the increasing power of the internet in our elections, OFWs will be making a loud political statement. They will be active. They will be campaigning among themselves and among their relatives back home. They will be voting in droves. They will be voting for change in the homeland. And all because they see hope in Rody Duterte!

Feedback:
First feedback received "... there are now active chapters in, California, Fukuoka and Nagoya, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore, Australia, Israel, Lebanon, Kuwait, England-UK, Malaysia, Thailand.".