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GMA Network
02-07-2025
- Politics
- GMA Network
EU observers give Comelec their final report on Eleksyon 2025
The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) turns over its Final Report and Recommendations for the May 12, 2025 National and Local Elections to the Commission on Elections at Comelec headquarters in Palacio del Gobernador, Intramuros, Manila on Wednesday, July 2, 2025. Photo: Commission on Elections The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday said it will review the recommendations of the European Union (EU) poll observers on the recent 2025 national and local elections (NLE). Members of the EU observation mission met with Comelec officials to formally turn over their final election observation report and recommendations, months after the conclusion of the May 12 midterm polls. 'Ang pangako ng lahat ng bawat isang miyembro ng Comelec kanina, aaralin at kung may mga bagay na maisasama sa proposal na revised Omnibus Election Code (OEC) ay isasama pa namin para maisaayos,' Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco told reporters. (The promise of each and every Comelec en banc member is to review the report and if there is any recommendation that may be included in the proposal for the revised OEC, then we will include it.) In April, the EU launched the election observation mission for Eleksyon 2025, deploying an initial 200 observers. More poll observers arrived in the country the following month. The international observers released their initial report on May 14, flagging widespread vote-buying; the continued dominance of political families; election-related violence, including on election day; and a legal framework that is fragmented and lacks grievance mechanisms. According to Laudiangco, among the EU poll observers' recommendations are decreasing the number of voters per precinct to shorten lines. They also reiterated the issues on vote buying, and violence, and lauded the poll body's transparency efforts, engagement with media, and expeditious actions on complaints of discrimination, and red-tagging. 'Mukhang ang susi kasi sa lahat ng nakitang observations, dalawang bagay: pagbabago sa legislation at pagpapalaki ng pondo. Kung masosolusyunan ang dalawang bagay na ito, tingin namin pareho, magagampanan namin ang sinasabi nilang international standard at mas magandang pagpapalakad ng halalan,' he added. (We saw that the key to these observations are two things: the amendment of election laws and a higher budget for the polls. If a way can be found for these, we think we will be able to attain the international standard and a better way of conducting elections.) The EU observation team said it will also submit its final report and recommendations to Congress. The Philippines held its midterm polls on May 12. — BM, GMA Integrated News For more Eleksyon 2025 related content and updates, visit GMA News Online's Eleksyon 2025 microsite.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bogus disqualification claims target Philippine political party ahead of vote
"The COMELEC has disqualified the BAYAN MUNA Party-list from participating in the 2025 midterm elections," reads a Facebook post shared May 10. It featured screenshots of Comelec's supposed ruling on a disqualification case filed by a petitioner named Angela O. Aguilar against Bayan Muna which is seeking a seat in Congress in the upcoming mid-term vote (archived link). The resolution -- apparently docketed "SPA No. 24-059" -- says the party-list group was disqualified for having links to a communist rebel group (archived link). Another Facebook post purports to show a Comelec press announcement quoting its spokesman John Rex Laudiangco as saying: "Votes cast for the BAYAN MUNA PARTYLIST will be considered null and void." Screenshots claiming to show news reports announcing Bayan Muna's disqualification also surfaced but were dismissed by The Philippine Star, Inquirer,ABS-CBN News and Rappler (archived here, here, here and here). "The Commission En Banc has not released a resolution disqualifying the Bayan Muna Party-list during this elections," Comelec said in a post on its official Facebook page on May 10 (archived link). "They are still officially included in the list of candidates for party-list groups for the election on Monday (May 12, 2025)." The circulating resolution and press announcement are bogus. A search through Comelec's notices on special action cases found "SPA No. 24-059" refers to an unrelated petition involving Jose Bunilla who was declared a "nuisance candidate" by the election body (archived link). A petitioner named Angela O. Aguilar, who claimed to be a secretary-general of a nongovernment organisation for underprivileged women, sought to disqualify Bayan Muna in 2019 (archived link). But her petition was dismissed in 2020, according to several Philippine news reports (archived here, here, here). Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna said in a post on the group's Facebook page on May 10: "There is no reason to disqualify the group and the Comelec knows this. We are a legitimate party-list group joining in the exercise of the elections (archived link)." AFP has debunked similar false disqualification claims targeting the party during the 2022 and 2019 elections.
South China Morning Post
22-04-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Philippine elections: will overseas Filipinos sway the vote?
With midterm elections just weeks away in the Philippines , analysts say overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) could help decide the fate of candidates locked in tight races. Advertisement The OFW vote heavily backed former president Rodrigo Duterte in 2016 and could once again prove pivotal – if logistical hurdles and low voter turnout do not undermine its full potential. Just 58,000 of the 2 million eligible OFWs have registered on a newly introduced online voting system launched by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the polls, which are scheduled on May 12. In the 2022 presidential election, about 1.5 million overseas voters registered, with a turnout rate of 23 per cent. However, Comelec anticipates a surge in voter enrolments after Easter. Advertisement 'The number of our enrollees may go up after Holy Week, as this is a common situation for us,' Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco told local media on April 15.
Gulf News
20-04-2025
- Politics
- Gulf News
Money, power, violence in high-stakes Philippine elections
Comelec, recorded 46 acts of political violence between January 12 and April 11 Last updated: AFP The country's elections commission, Comelec, recorded 46 acts of political violence between January 12 and April 11, including the shooting of Espinosa. At a rally this month, someone from the crowd fired a bullet that went through his chest and exited his arm, leaving him bleeding but alive. Others have been less lucky. A city council hopeful, a polling officer and a village chief were among those killed in similar attacks in the run-up to mid-term elections on May 12. Comelec said "fewer than 20" candidates have been killed so far this campaign season, which it notes is a drop. "This is much lower, very low compared to the past," commission spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco told AFP, citing a tally of about 100 deaths in the last general election. Analysts warned that such violence will likely remain a fixture of the Philippines' political landscape. The immense influence of the posts is seen as something worth killing for. Holding municipal office means control over jobs, police departments and disbursements of national tax funds, said Danilo Reyes, an associate professor at the University of the Philippines' political science department. "Local chief executives have discretion when it comes to how to allocate the funding, which projects, priorities," he said. Rule of law that becomes weaker the farther one gets from Manila also means that regional powerbrokers can act with effective impunity, said Cleve Arguelles, CEO of Manila-based WR Numero Research. "Local political elites have their own kingdoms, armed groups and... patronage networks," he said, noting violence is typically highest in the archipelago nation's far north and south. "The stakes are usually high in a local area where only one family is dominant or where there is involvement of private armed groups," Arguelles said. "If you lose control of... city hall, you don't just lose popular support. You actually lose both economic and political power." In the absence of strong institutions to mediate disagreements, Reyes said, "confrontational violence" becomes the go-to. A 'grand bargain' Espinosa was waiting for his turn to speak at a campaign stop in central Leyte province on April 10 when a shooter emerged from the crowd and fired from about 50 metres (164 feet) away, according to police. Police Brigadier General Jean Fajardo told reporters this week that seven police officers were "being investigated" as suspects. Convictions, however, are hard to come by. While Comelec's Laudiangco insisted recent election-related shootings were all making their way through regional court systems, he could provide no numbers. Data compiled by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project show that in 79 percent of violent acts targeting local government members between 2018 and 2022 the perpetrators were never identified. National-level politicians, meanwhile, reliant on local political bases to deliver votes, have little incentive to press for serious investigations, said Reyes. "The only way you can ensure national leaders win positions is for local allies to deliver votes," he said. "There are convictions but very rarely, and it depends on the potential political fallout on the national leaders as well as the local leaders." It's part of the "grand bargain" in Philippine politics, Arguelles said. Local elites are "tolerated by the national government so long as during election day they can also deliver votes when they're needed". Direct control Three days after Espinosa's shooting, a district board candidate and his driver were rushed to hospital after someone opened fire on them in the autonomous area of Mindanao. Election-season violence has long plagued the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, known as the BARMM. Comelec assumed "direct control" over the municipalities of Buluan and Datu Odin Sinsuat after municipal election officer Bai Maceda Lidasan Abo and her husband were shot dead last month. Since last year, Comelec has held the power to directly control and supervise not only local election officials but also law enforcement. Top police officials in the two municipalities were removed for "gross negligence and incompetence" after allegedly ignoring requests to provide security details for the slain Comelec official. Their suspensions, however, will last only from "campaigning up to... the swearing-in of the winners," Comelec's Laudiangco said. The commission's actions were part of a "tried and tested security plan" that is showing real results, he said. But he conceded that the interwoven nature of family, power and politics in the provinces would continue to create a combustible brew.
Filipino Times
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Filipino Times
Overseas Filipino voting begins; Comelec releases official schedule by country
Overseas Filipino voters officially began casting their ballots on Sunday, marking the start of the month-long overseas voting period, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced. Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco confirmed that the test voting phase has ended, making way for the official overseas voting period which runs from April 13 until May 12 at 7 p.m. 'The start of voting in countries where there are enrolled registered overseas voters (ROVs) is at 8:00 a.m.,' Laudiangco said. The corresponding voting start times (in Philippine Standard Time) for various countries and regions are as follows: Australia and Guam (GMT+10): 6:00 AM Japan and South Korea (GMT+9): 7:00 AM Brunei, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Macau, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore (GMT+8): 8:00 AM Thailand, Vietnam, and parts of Indonesia (GMT+7): 9:00 AM Bangladesh (GMT+6): 10:00 AM India (GMT+5:30): 10:30 AM Pakistan (GMT+5): 11:00 AM United Arab Emirates and Oman (GMT+4): 12:00 PM Greece, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Kenya, and Israel (GMT+3): 1:00 PM European countries such as Spain, Germany, France, and South Africa (GMT+2): 2:00 PM Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Morocco (GMT+1): 3:00 PM Brazil and Argentina (GMT-3): 7:00 PM USA (GMT-5), Canada, and Chile (GMT-4): 8:00 PM USA (GMT-5): 9:00 PM Mexico (GMT-6): 10:00 PM USA and Canada (GMT-7): 11:00 PM USA (GMT-10): 2:00 AM (following day) Related Articles
