Thousands of security forces on alert ahead of Philippine polls
More than 65 million qualified Filipino voters are expected to troop to the country’s polling centers on Monday, Election Day, with former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, the only son and namesake of the late dictator, favoured to win the presidency based on poll surveys.
“It’s all system go,” said Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Marlon Casquejo regarding the preparations undertaken to help ensure fair, honest and clean polls.
At stake in the national elections are more than 18,000 national and local positions with the presidency at the top of the list.
The voters are also to cast their ballots for candidates seeking national positions, aside from the presidency, for vice president, 12 senators and members of partylist groups to promote and protect the interests under-represented sector in the House of Representatives, like farmers, fishermen, retirees and small businessmen.
The Comelec said most of the 18,000 positions being contested were local in nature.
It said these included the posts for governor, congressman, mayor, vice mayor as well
More than 65m qualified voters are expected to troop to the polling centres, with former senator Marcos, the only son and namesake of the late dictator, favoured to win the presidency based on poll survey
as members of the city and town councils. The Comelec also deputised the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to maintain peace and order especially in “areas of concern” or “hotpots” which have a history of violence and killings.
The two rivals for the presidency – Bongbong Marcos and Vice President Leni Robredo – both ended the official campaign season on Saturday night with a show of force in the form of huge rallies apparently to show “who’s who” in Metro Manila.
Marcos and his running mate Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, the daughter of President Duterte, held their big rally in suburban Paranaque City. On the other hand, Robredo and her vice presidential bet Senator Kiko Pangilinan launched their equally huge rally In Makati City.
Metro Manila has more than seven million registered voters in the 15 cities and one municipality that compose the area, known officially as the National Capital Region.
Nationwide polls especially by Pulse Asia and the independent OCTA research group showed that Marcos was the choice of 56 per cent of their respondents.
Robredo received only 23 per cent based on the same surveys.
In their Paranaque rally, the Marcos-duterte tandem pushed for their main campaign battlecry of national unity.
Marcos pointed out the unity movement should not end on Election Day but should be carried on as the nation moves forward from yet another polarizing situation arising from the polls.
But based on her rally in Makati City on Saturday night tagged as the “historic people’s campaign” Robredo and her political strategists said this might yet turn the tide in her favour.
Highlighting her campaign was the presence of youth volunteers who spent their own money to organise rallies and undertake house-to-house campaigns for Robredo throughout the country.
“Based on our planning... we are confident that we’ll have a secure and orderly election,” said armed forces spokesman Colonel Ramon Zagala.
There have been 16 “validated election-related incidents” since Jan.9, including four shootings and a “slight illegal detention,” Alba said.
That compares with 133 incidents during the 2016 presidential elections and 60 in the 2019 mid-term polls.
Police spokeswoman Colonel Jean Fajardo atributed the sharp drop to a heightened security presence, as well as military and police operations targeting “loose firearms” and private armed groups. The election commission largely prohibits the carrying of weapons during the election period that lasts until June 8.
Experts say the explosion of social media, which has made it easier to report incidents, and the growing domination of political dynasties, which smother electoral competition, have helped tamp down election violence.
In the country’s deadliest single incident of political violence on record, 58 people were massacred in 2009 as gunmen allegedly belonging to a local warlord in the southern Philippines atacked a group of people to stop a rival filing his election candidacy.