The following editorial was first published in early 2005.

e Filipinos who migrated to other countries as well as Filipinos temporarily working abroad, whether we realize it or not, have a major role to play in Philippine Politics. Since the early seventies when ranks of expatriate Filipinos suddenly swelled in reaction to the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, the number of Filipinos on foreign soil has steadily grown to the point where today, our monetary remittances are what keeps the Philippine economy afloat.

While most of us have our hands full with work and family, the revolution in information technology has brought the Philippines so much closer and current than ever before. With satellite television, and the internet, those of us who once may have felt left-out and uninformed now see and hear things almost as they happen. This further strengthens our expatriate community. We already wield economic clout through our foreign currency remittances; now we also have the power of information.

And a well-informed expatriate community will never be as timid or as forgiving as the Filipinos back home. For many of us, we see things from the perspective of someone living in a developed country. We live in societies where some traits and practices common to Filipinos are actually frowned upon. We have learned how to do things differently. In many cases, we've learned how to do it right!

Filipinos living and working abroad already have the numbers...we attained critical mass a while back! What we need is a voice that can unite the various factions around the globe into a cohesive force. We owe it to the Filipinos of tomorrow. So that they might not have to leave their country just to earn a decent living as many of us had to do.