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A whole bunch of voters within the Philippine nationwide elections will likely be ready for the leads to Alaska. And a few hope the end result makes means for a return to the previous.
Leo Evangelista bought two mailed ballots just lately. This week he voted in Alaska’s particular main for the state’s sole seat in Congress. Final week, he voted for the president of the Philippines.
Evangelista is a twin citizen. He’s lived in Anchorage because the early Nineties and has labored as a mail service for greater than 25 years.
“My household all the time stated, ‘You need to be a nurse otherwise you need to be a mailman?’” he stated with amusing.
He loves his life in Alaska, however he has siblings again within the Philippines and owns a house there nonetheless. He’s stayed actually concerned in politics, and he takes voting critically.
There was some confusion about whether or not the abroad ballots had sufficient pre-paid postage. His spouse works on the submit workplace too — on the counter. She made certain to weigh their poll envelopes and add adequate postage. After which she despatched them precedence mail to the consulate in San Francisco, as a result of Evangelista just isn’t taking any possibilities.
He’s not too fearful, although. His candidate — Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. — is predicted to win.
Even if you happen to’re not following Philippines politics carefully, that identify might be acquainted to you. Bongbong is the son of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. Ferdinand dominated the Philippines from the mid-Nineteen Sixties to the mid-Eighties, a part of that point underneath martial legislation.
Evangelista is like so many Filipinos who left the nation towards the top of the Marcos presidency when the household was deposed and fled in exile to Hawaii. It was a really tumultuous time within the Philippines.
Evangelista labored for the federal government underneath the Marcos presidency however says he left for alternative. He says life is healthier within the U.S. as a result of there are jobs.
However life is healthier within the Philippines, too, he says. It’s low cost. And heat. And in addition to, it’s residence. He hopes that underneath the management of one other Marcos, the nation will proceed to grow to be extra like how he remembers it. He plans to maneuver there as quickly as he retires.
Rochelle Solanoy additionally has plans to return to the Philippines when she retires from her state job in Juneau in six and a half years.
“As a result of if you go residence to the Philippines, you are feeling like a queen,” she stated. “You recognize, your cash stretches.”
Solanoy can be a twin citizen. And he or she’s greater than only a supporter of Bongbong Marcos. She’s a fan. On the Friday earlier than the election, she was driving round Juneau after work, selecting up her girlfriends for a celebratory dinner on the Gold Digger, a Filipino restaurant in a strip mall.
“We’re celebrating as a result of it’s Annie’s birthday,” she stated. “And we’re celebrating as a result of Bongbong’s gonna win.”
She’s enthusiastic about Marcos’ guarantees to maintain cleansing up the cities, to maintain constructing infrastructure and to construct a brand new financial system. Her dream is of a giant reunion within the Philippines — a homecoming for all of the abroad staff. The older individuals will retire on the gorgeous seashores. The youthful individuals will lastly have jobs there and be reunited with households a few of them have by no means met.
Solanoy wasn’t all the time a Marcos supporter. She left the Philippines in 1981 when she was nonetheless a child. However she went again to go to in 1986. She was an adolescent and he or she says she bought caught up within the Individuals Energy Revolution.
“I imply, they portrayed Marcos to be a dictator. After all, I believed all of that,” she stated.
However Solanoy says she has since relearned the political historical past of her nation. She says she’s nonetheless studying, by YouTube movies, about what the older Marcos completed throughout his management. In these movies, the years of martial legislation within the Philippines are actually remembered because the golden years, and Marcos is remembered as a philanthropist. She thinks she was lied to for 30 years.
“That’s why I used to be like, ‘oh my God, I used to be so silly!’” she stated pondering again on her teenage flirtation with the revolution. “Lots of people are pondering that means. So we would like Marcos again.”
Like Leo Evangelista, she’s assured that Marcos will win – except there’s election fraud. In 2016, Bongbong Marcos misplaced his vice presidential bid towards Leni Robredo. His supporters consider the vote was rigged, however Marcos’ official protests of the consequence failed.
Robredo is now additionally vying for the presidency. Solanoy and her mates say they’re terrified of dishonest – that someway Robredo will win once more. However in addition they say they belief the present president, Rodrigo Duterte, to make sure a clear election. In spite of everything, his daughter is operating for vice chairman.
“After all he’s going to guard his daughter,” Solanoy stated.
Election day is Monday, Might 9. It’s a vacation within the Philippines. When the polls shut, it’ll be 3 a.m. in Alaska. Leo Evangelista is planning on staying up late to look at the outcomes if they arrive in instantly. He’s planning to take Monday off.
Rochelle Solanoy is already celebrating a Bongbong Marcos win. She says when it occurs, she’s going to go to the Philippines and go to him at Malacañang Palace. She needs to speak to him in individual about her plans for herself and all her mates to retire from their state jobs and return residence.
This story is a part of KTOO’s participation within the America Amplified initiative to make use of group engagement to tell and strengthen our journalism. America Amplified is a public media initiative funded by the Company for Public Broadcasting.
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