Marcos’s son set to assume power in Philippines with sweeping win
Three security guards shot dead at polling station; Comelec admits more than 1,800 vote counting machines malfunctioned; official says voter turnout encouraging
DUBAI: Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the Philippines autocrat deposed in a 1986 popular uprising, won a presidential election by a huge margin on Monday, according to unofficial results, marking a stunning comeback for the country’s most famous political dynasty.
“Marcos’s apparent landslide electoral victory is not a guarantee that he will be a popular and/or effective leader, but it gets his presidency off to a strong start.
In particular, it will create a strong initial gravitational pull on members of Congress... and will mean more technocrats/economists will be willing to serve in his cabinet.”
In Dubai, at least 930 of the 191,779 registered overseas absentee voters in Dubai and the Northern Emirates cast their vote on Monday, the last day of the April 10 to May 9 electoral process conducted at the Philippine Consulate General and the Philippine Overseas Labour Office in Dubai (PCGDXB and POLODXB respectively) for the hotly-contested Philippine presidential/national elections.
Ballots papers are counted in Manila for the first round of voting in the Philippines’ presidential election.
With more than 84 per cent of precincts reporting, Marcos had received over 27 million votes to liberal candidate Leni Robredo’s 12.9 million.
If sustained, the tally — published by local media from Commission on Elections figures — would make Marcos the first Philippine president since his father’s ouster to be elected with an absolute majority.
The figure was easily known since for the smooth conduct of elections and in connection with the Novel Coronavirus health protocols, voters were divided into batches of 10 persons each. They were asked to wait in halls and covered areas within the complex where the Philippines’ Commission on Elections (Comelec)-designated/ accredited PCGDXB officers and staff as well as community volunteers constantly briefed them of the procedures so their votes would not be wasted.
The last 10 voters known as Batch 93, were able to enter the PCGDXB premises on or before the 3 p.m. cut-off that was synchronized with the 7:00 p.m. termination of the polls across the Southeast Asian archipelago on Monday. The 10 are professionals who believe it is their civic duty to vote. They want to make a difference in the state of politics and governance back home. Some only found the time to take off from their work on Monday. Some tried to cast their votes early on, going back-and-forth to the PCGDXB between two and five times, but long queues had deterred them.
They were Renee Portillo, 11 years in the UAE; Ericson Malabanan, second-time voter and deployed in Abu Dhabi; and human resources consultant Lou Parroco who felt her heartbeat running fast as she was happy to beat the deadline despite traffic. Equally happy were James Bondoc, Charina Miranda, Jenelyn Daniel, Nancy Silva, Roberto Pablo Jr., Calvin Casta, and Expat Media managing director Ma. Felicidad delos Santos.
Coming from the Business Bay area in Dubai, Daniel said the taxi driver dropped her off at the PCGDXB in Al Qusais in 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, as Gulf Today emerged from the news coverage at 3:30 p.m., 10 Filipinos were outside the PCGDXB premises demanding entry. They argued that the cut-off time was 7 p.m. They only kept quiet when informed that the polls already ended at 3 p.m. in time with the 7 p.m. closure in the Philippines, in accordance with the COMELEC OAV rules and regulations.
The 6 p.m. target for the start of the counting of votes with COMELEC/PCGDXB-ACCREDITED poll watchers/representatives of the Liberal Party, Lakas-christian Muslim Democrats, Federal Party of the Philippines, Philippine Democratic Party, Kalinga, Makabayan, and Sagip got delayed as by 8 p.m. the count had yet to commence, it was learnt.
It would be the Comelec-designated PCGDXB staff-special Board of Elections Inspectors (SBEI) who shall man the continuing counting of the votes until all these—stored in SD cards of 1,000 votes each—is accomplished.
These votes shall then be transmited via satellite to the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi where all the canvassed votes are all consolidated before these are all transmited, again via satellite to Manila election authorities. The PCGDXB shall be closed for its consular services until the vote counting is done.
The Gulf Today team was at the PCGDXB from 10:15 a.m. It was gathered that voters were allowed to enter the premises at 8:20 a.m. Among them was Cecilia Lariosa who jeted in from South Africa with her non-filipino husband. They landed at 6:30 a.m. at the Dubai International Airport. She rushed to the PCGDXB thereater.
Among the voters too were mothers or young couples with babies or toddlers. A mother who cast her vote at 11 a.m. early on volunteered: “I tried to be here during the Eid but was informed of the long queues. My daughter is with me because no one would look ater her at home.”
Violence, long lines of voters, defective vote counting machines (VCMS) and power outages on Monday marred election day.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) and concerned groups noted that voters started lining up even before the polling precincts could open for the start of the official voting from 6am up to the deadline at 7pm on Monday.
Television coverage showed long lines of voters at the polling centres amid fair and hot weather in Luzon and the Visayas as well as rain in Mindanao.
Police reported that violence broke out anew in Mindanao with the killing of three “barangay” (village) watchmen and injuries to 15 others, which all occurred in Maguindanao province.
Police said unidentified gunmen shot and killed the three watchmen while in patrol in the town of Buluan. On the other hand, 15 others were wounded – nine in the town of Datu Unsay and six in the town of Shariff Aguak – due to a series of explosions.
As huge crowds of voters waited outside the polling precincts, the Comelec confirmed reports of vote counting machines (VCMS) that malfunctioned, further delaying the voting process.
The Comelec admited that more than 1,800 VCMS malfunctioned. The agency said some of the machines encountered paper jam while the others rejected ballots being fed into it.
But the Comelec assured that the defective VCMS were either repaired or replaced as it assured that the elections would continue even amid these problems. The agency also said that based on initial reports, it was expecting a huge turnout of voters.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, a veteran politician, pointed out this year’s historic elections and projected huge voters turnout would help shape the future of the nation since the 1986 Edsa People Power revolution that ousted the Marcos dictatorship.
The issue has become even more significant with most pollsters predicting a landslide victory for former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, the only son and namesake of the late dictator who is seeking the presidency. The running mate of Marcos was Sara Duterte, the daughter of President Duterte and the mayor of their hometown of Davao City in Mindanao.
Ranged against Marcos and Duterte is Vice President Leni Robredo and her running mate Senator Francis Pangilinan. Robredo beat Marcos in the 2016 vice presidential rate. Marcos protested Robredo’s victory, claiming he was cheated but the Supreme Court, siting as the presidential electoral tribunal, later threw out his petition for lack of merit.
Dr Aries Arugay, a political science professor at the state-run University of the Philippines, agreed that the stakes in the Monday elections “are not only high but also many and deep and long lasting.” He pointed out: “The elections will decide the fate of what’s let of Philippine democracy that has eroded under (President) Duterte.”
Around 18,000 posts, from the vice presidency, seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives to mayors, governors and councillors were also up for grabs.
More than 60,000 security personnel were deployed to protect polling stations and election workers.
Misinformation on social media, meanwhile, sought to confuse voters. The Commission on Elections branded as “fake and spurious” documents circulating online showing it had disqualified a senatorial hopeful and five political parties.
Whatever the result, Marcos Jr opponents have already vowed to pursue efforts to have him disqualified over a previous tax conviction and to extract billions of dollars in estate taxes from his family.
“It’s another crossroads for us,” said Judy Taguiwalo, 72, an anti-marcos activist who was arrested twice and tortured during the elder Marcos’s regime.
“We need to continue to stand up and struggle.” Commission on Elections chairman Saidamen Pangarungan said the election was “relatively peaceful” compared with 2019, when 60 violent incidents were recorded.
“The security situation was good in terms of our people being able to vote and there’s continuity of the electoral process,” said armed forces spokesman Ramon Zagala.