SAN FRANCISCO—After being passive for too many elections, Filipinos here have found their voice and they’re chanting: “Yes, we can.”

Around 150 Filipino-Americans in the bay area, including educators, politicians and community leaders, gathered downtown this week for the formal kick-off of Filipinos for Obama (FFO), a grassroots organization of supporters of presumptive Democratic presidential bet Barack Obama, the first ever person of color who has a real shot at the White House.

To “Filipinize” the event, the fired-up Obama supporters occasionally erupted in chants of “Kaya ba? Kaya!” which is Obama’s campaign slogan “Yes, we can” in Filipino.

“I’ve never seen this level of energy and enthusiasm and commitment from our community; this is astounding,” six-term West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said in an interview on the sidelines of the kick-off party at the Zebulon Lounge on Natoma Street here.

Cabaldon said the movement has the potential of ending the “invisibility” of Filipino-Americans in the landscape of US national politics.

“For the first time in probably two generations, [there are a lot of] young people seriously engaged in politics ... And it seems [their interest is] stronger than it’s ever been,” said the Filipino-American who is seeking re-election this year.

There are around four million Filipino immigrants in the United States, comprising the second biggest Asian-American bloc in the country, representing 1.5 percent of the US population.

Three-point strategy

However, only around a million Filipino-Americans are registered voters. In Nevada, considered a swing state, nearly half of the Asian-American voting population is of Filipino descent, but only 18 percent of Asians of voting age are registered to vote.

“It’s 77 days before the elections of our lifetime … We need to register Pinoy voters; we need to tell our stories, to talk to every single Filipino out there especially our lolas, titas, titos (grandmothers, aunts and uncles), our cousins … We can make a huge impact in the elections particularly because there are a lot of Filipinos in the swing states,” said FFO chair Angelica Jongco.

The group presented a three-point strategy to win the elections for Obama: Register Filipino voters, persuade Filipino voters in the swing states to vote for Obama and raise funds through community initiatives.

Jongco said the group would be organizing a phone banking campaign in the coming months and would also bring supporters to Nevada to “get into casinos, talk to the Filipinos there and ask them to register and vote for Obama.”

Grassroots campaign

The group already organized a pistahan (festival) in San Francisco last Aug. 10 where it registered 50 voters and signed up about 100 new volunteers and supporters.

The FFO’s formal launch came on the heels of the biggest one-night fundraiser for Obama—or any other American politician so far—where the Democratic presumptive nominee raised $7.8 million (P343 million) over dinner with wealthy South Asian and Pacific Islander supporters at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco on Aug 18.

At the grassroots level, the FFO sold blue shirts bearing the words “Filipinos for Obama” at $15 apiece during the kick-off event, along with buttons, stickers and posters. An autographed Obama autobiography “The Audacity of Hope” was also raffled off to guests who paid $25 at the event.

“Every dollar counts. It’s a grassroots campaign so everything counts,” said FFO political director Dexter Gordon.

Symbol of inclusion

Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and a Kansas mother, born in Hawaii and bred in Indonesia and the United States, is seen as the symbol of change in the country, and a symbol of inclusion for immigrants.

“His campaign, his message, the values he’s spreading across the country are about inclusion and stepping away from politics that define everybody as ‘other’ or ‘foreigner.’ It’s not about Obama being better at immigration issues, it is about changing the mood of the country, reconnecting to what it means to be American and that’s to be welcomed,” Cabaldon said.

“(John) McCain, nice as he may be, is really interested in a return to the good old days which weren’t all that good for Filipino-Americans,” he added.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series of Filipino migration stories the author is doing for the University of San Francisco’s Center for the Pacific Rim under the Yuchengco Fellows Program for Young Professionals in the Media.