Filipinos Anxiously Await Election News

Friday began early for Father Marito Rebamontan. The Philippine-born priest spent the morning hours scanning two news publications closely before he left to celebrate Mass at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Anaheim.

“I’m trying to get all the information I can on the Philippine election. Right after the Mass, I even walked several blocks to buy another newspaper.”

Rebamontan talked of the growing concern among Orange County Filipinos that Friday’s election might have been compromised by election fraud.

One resident said: “Many of us feel that Mrs. (Corazon) Aquino might have won the actual voting, but she might lose in the actual counting.”

At banks, stores and meeting places, the election was foremost in the minds of the county’s 10,000-member Filipino community.

Lolita Calina, a store clerk at a Filipino-owned market in south Santa Ana, said many Filipinos came into the store in the morning looking for the latest editions of the Philippine News, a Los Angeles-based newspaper.

“I had to tell them it wasn’t here yet, and that there was no new news,” she said.

University students, housewives, and other members of the clergy in the county’s Filipino community expressed sentiments against President Ferdinand E. Marcos and said they generally support Aquino, the opposition candidate.

“Don’t get us wrong,” said Ernest Delfin of Fountain Valley, a newspaper columnist for Philippine American News, also a Los Angeles-based newspaper.

“Being anti-Marcos doesn’t necessarily make us pro-Aquino. But the American press uses that label for us.

“Whether it was Mr. John Jones running against Aquino, I would still be against John Jones because of what has happened to our country in the last 20 years.”

Fiercely loyal to his homeland, Delfin said that for the last two months he has focused his thoughts on his column and the election. He said a victory for either candidate would have a “monumental” significance for the future of the Philippines.

‘We’re Almost Last’

“We’re concerned about the stability of our country,” he said, explaining proudly that the Philippines was once at least No. 5 among world powers behind Japan in terms of economic growth. “Now, we’re almost last.”

Father Rebamontan said many residents here are fearful of expressing their opinions publicly because of possible retaliatory action by the Marcos government.

“Marcos keeps an eye on our relatives there,” he said. “My mother doesn’t write about it so much because she is so scared.”

Two UC Irvine instructors who are Filipino natives declined interviews Friday because, according to a university spokeswoman, “they said they still have relatives living there.”

Those with relatives in sensitive positions in the Philippines are withholding comment until “better times,” said Msgr. Pedro Yrigan of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Santa Ana, who came to the United States from the Philippines in 1971.

A Clouded Future

“A lot of Filipinos are very mad at what is happening there with economics and everything, but won’t voice their opinion,” Yrigan said.

The Philippine government’s economic instability and its clouded future has caused some residents, especially university students, to agonize about their own future.

Mark Sandoval, 19, a civil engineering major at UC Irvine who graduated from a Philippines high school last year, was unsure whether he will return to his homeland after graduation.

“I’ve been trying to avoid (that decision) for a while. I’ve been watching television. My whole family is still back home, and I’ve been trying to keep track of as much of the election as possible. I don’t know. It’s just a wait-and-see time for me right now.”

Emotions are high for many Filipinos, he said. “I just got a letter from my mom. Most of the things in it are about the question, ‘What if civil war breaks out?’ ”

Made Arrangements to Leave

His mother wrote about families in Manila stocking up on canned food and a rumored exodus by the rich who allegedly are leaving the country for temporary refuge in Hong Kong and other foreign cities.

Sandoval’s father and mother, who own property about two hours’ drive from Manila, have made arrangements to move there if an emergency arises, he said.

But residents said they are hoping for peace.

In his sermon for Sunday, Rebamontan said he plans to ask Filipino parishioners to pray for peace and order. It’s an effort, he said, to try to “ease the fear and anxiety.”