Filipino Passion for Politics Shows in Community Group Election : Activism: Turnout is heavy, with long waits to vote. But some say internal power struggles have blocked the organization from providing much-needed services.

On a warm Sunday in November, Filipinos by the thousands came on foot, by car and in buses to a modest compound near downtown to vote in an unusual election.

So big was the crowd and so long the line that several people fainted on the sidewalk and had to be taken away for treatment. Some, unable to bear the waiting that averaged three hours, left, as did a middle-aged nurse who said, “I can’t be standing here all day when I have to go to work.”

But most endured the Philippines-style election of the Filipino American Community of Los Angeles with good humor. They chatted with each other and enjoyed food and soft drinks offered by a candidate, whose relatives had set up a food booth on a sidewalk off Burlington Avenue, near Union Avenue, closed off to accommodate the crowd.

“We have to make sacrifices to instill our Filipino spirit,” declared a smiling Remedios Jacutan, standing in line with a group of retirees and eating arroz calda--rice porridge--from a paper bowl.

“We have to cooperate to do what is right for the sake of our community,” said his wife, Emili, who also held a bowl of rice porridge.

No one could explain exactly what was meant by the “Filipino spirit.” But the Rev. Ric La Paz, of the nearby Filipino Christian Church, who had been recruited as a member of the city Commission on Elections to monitor the election, came close when he said: “Politics is the lifeblood of the Filipinos.”

On Friday, nearly seven weeks after the voting, Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg announced the election results during a City Hall news conference. The three-member Commission on Elections, chaired by Goldberg, had just completed the time-consuming process of verifying more than a third of the votes. Hundreds of ballots were voided for multiple voting, improper registration and other violations.

Goldberg, whose district has more than 40,000 Filipino residents, was appointed by a Superior Court judge to supervise the election. The decision followed protracted litigation that was resolved 10 months ago.

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Winning Party’s Aurora Dotimas, a retired phone company employee, won the presidency of the nation’s oldest and biggest Filipino American community organization. She defeated Marty M. Zialcita, a 47-year-old Filipino Canadian architect of the Congress for Filipino Advancement in America Inc., by 86 votes.

Also chosen were 24 other officers--evenly split between the two dominant parties.

The head of the group, which is better known by its acronym FACLA, is viewed in some quarters as a Filipino equivalent of mayor of Los Angeles. As in other predominantly immigrant Asian communities largely ignored by the mainstream, a hunger for recognition is a powerful drive in certain segments of the Filipino American community.

“This is their way of looking for internal validation that they are not getting [from the mainstream],” said Prosy dela Cruz, a Filipino American community leader.

But over the years, FACLA’s power struggles have tainted the organization’s image.

“In its earlier days, it played a very important role,” said the Rev. La Paz. “But it has lost its touch on the community it seeks to serve.”

Alluding to the intensity of the political feud, Goldberg admitted that she didn’t realize what she was getting into when she agreed to oversee the election. But now that a fair election has been held and the results certified, she said she hoped the energy expended in the election would be transferred to “strengthening and stabilizing” the organization so it can provide much-needed community services.

Goldberg said her staffers spent “several hundred hours of their personal time” working on the FACLA matter.

“This is the last chance for FACLA,” said La Paz. “They have to get their act together.”

Otherwise, he said, the 50-year-old organization will waste the goodwill from the government and the community.

FACLA is a source of embarrassment and frustration for many Filipino American community leaders. Critics believe FACLA’s image reflects negatively on the entire community.

“They like to invite the governor, mayor and other elected officials to their induction and wear a tuxedo,” said one longtime Filipino American community observer. But Goldberg countered that view, saying that FACLA is an important organization that “ought to be a strong voice” for the Filipino American community.

“I am willing to give it one more good shot,” she said, adding that she is hopeful that an organization that “can stir the passions of 10,000 people” has a potential to make contributions.

For one thing, she said, FACLA should be involved in lunch programs for seniors and needy Filipino veterans.

FACLA’s activities have attracted attention within and outside the local Filipino American community for years.

Police helicopters have hovered over the FACLA headquarters at 1740 W. Temple St. when feuds turned ugly. Six years ago, there was a near-riot after the then-president was locked out of his office by angry opponents. When the embattled leader mustered his supporters to regain control of the headquarters, opponents showed up en masse. Police were called. Although there were no arrests or formal charges stemming from the incident, it showed how nasty disputes can get at FACLA.

This year’s battle was the result of a struggle for power that began nearly three years ago.

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Detractors, upset with policy changes, including a constitutional amendment that retroactively lengthened the term of the incumbent from two to four years, transferred assets of the organization and created their own group--Congress for Filipino Advancement in America Inc.

Complaints and cross-complaints were filed. It was the settlement of these suits that prompted the Nov. 5 “special” election. Part of the stipulation was that incumbent Manolo R. Madamba and his rival, Leony Lee Cummings, of Congress for Filipino Advancement, not run.

But the torchbearer for Madamba’s party was none other than his sister, Dotimas, a FACLA board member.

Challenging her was a Cummings supporter, Zialcita.

Dotimas’ supporters tried to have Zialcita disqualified because he is a Canadian citizen. But FACLA’s bylaws required only that a candidate be a Filipino. So, Zialcita ran, spending $40,000 in the campaign.

Dotimas said the campaign cost her $10,000, mostly for food.

Though there was a third candidate--Ideal Party’s Greg “Meng” Gatus, a restaurant manager--the election was largely a contest between Dotimas and Zialcita and their relatives and supporters, reflecting the personal nature of politics in the Philippines.

But in this Los Angeles version, the rivals were in-laws. Zialcita’s older brother, Mario, is married to Dotimas’ younger sister, Clavel.

The election capsulizes both what’s right and wrong in the local Filipino American community--one of the largest concentrations of Filipinos outside the Philippines.

A troubling aspect is the community’s divisiveness and mistrust.

But a hopeful side is the tremendous energy and resources in numbers that could one day be translated into political influence.

Filipinos have an advantage over many immigrants from Asia. Unlike Chinese, Koreans or Vietnamese, Filipinos arrive here speaking English and are familiar with American ways because English, along with Tagalog, are official languages in their homeland. The Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 to 1946.

Since most Filipino immigrants are professionals, they are able to find work and integrate into the mainstream more easily than other recent arrivals who open small businesses in ethnic enclaves.

But how to tap the potential is the big question.

“If only Filipino immigrants could transfer this passion [for politics] to community[wide] work and mainstream politics, imagine what we could achieve,’ said Roy Morales, a Los Angeles-born Filipino American community leader who spent 14 hours as a volunteer at the election site.

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While there may be money galore to wine and dine voters for a FACLA election, critics within the community say, there are seldom sufficient funds for programs to help the Filipino youth, for example.

“The notion [of going beyond the family, friends and town folk], is foreign to a lot of Filipinos,” said UCLA urban planner Tania Azores. The immigrant mentality--of succeeding economically, sending children to school and remitting money to relatives in the Philippines--takes precedence over the progress of the local community.

Regionalism and personal loyalty interfere with fostering community consciousness that is a prerequisite to organizing and gaining political influence in this country.

But divisiveness and diversity are rooted in Philippine history, culture and geography. Filipinos come from a nation of more than 7,000 islands, dozens of languages and 400 years of Spanish and American colonial rule during which “divide and conquer” was a modus operandi.

This diversity and divisiveness dampen efforts to unify the community.

In Los Angeles, Filipinos numbered more than 88,000 in the 1990 census, accounting for one in four Asians in the city. They outnumber Chinese as the largest Asian population not only in Southern California, but in the rest of the state, with 731,685 in 1990. Experts believe the state’s Filipino population approaches 1 million.

Yet, Filipinos are largely invisible in media portrayals and are underrepresented in public office, in business and academia.

“We’re forgotten Asian Americans,” said Fred Cordova, founding president of the Filipino American National Historical Society. Attorney Edmund Anciano of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, a member of the second generation, says Filipino Americans have to make a leap.

“We have to learn the rules of politics here,” he said. “We have to register and vote, vote frequently, vote as a bloc and contribute money. In the Philippines, candidates dole out money to gain support. Here, in order to get access, you have to contribute to campaigns.”

What Filipino Americans here need to develop is community conscience, said Azores. Until they do, individual Filipino Americans may excel on their own merits, but the community as a whole will remain mostly invisible and without influence commensurate with its numbers, she said.