By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
The just-concluded mid-term elections certainly provided a whiff of fresh air. For one, the COMELEC is obviously glad to report the approximately 82% voter’s turn-out for the exercise.
It is touted to be the largest turn-out in any mid-term elections ever in the country. That is a welcome shift as it indicates that more people are now eager to exercise one of their vested powers and willing to get involved in defining a new order for the future.
Youth power was evident in the elections. More than 40% of the 68.4 voters registered for this activity, belongs to the 18-34 age bracket according to the electoral overseer. If those from 35-44 years of age are reckoned with, the percentage rises to more than 60%. It bodes well for a more engaged population in the foreseeable future.
My wife and I were already at our polling precincts before six in the morning during the polls, but there were already throngs of people in every precinct. And half of them were not senior citizens, PWDs or pregnant women! That was a sure sign that everyone would like to be empowered.
It took me less than 2 minutes to complete voting. And I voted the full complement of allowable maximum number of candidates in every position. Having a codigo of my chosen candidates, with their corresponding numbers, was a big help. When I stood up, I glanced at the voter who happened to come in ahead of me. I saw that he was only half-way through. He didn’t bring with him a list of his choices!
I voted 12 senatorial candidates but only 5 were in the winning circle (Bam Aquino, Ping Lacson, Tito Sotto, Erwin Tulfo, and Pia Cayetano). This is par for the course for me. I normally vote for candidates based on my assessment of their qualifications and track records, not on their political affiliations, celebrity status, or pre-election surveys. Many of them are longshots to nail down a seat.
Ironically, a few people never fail to ask for my codigo a few days before the actual election day. Of course, they get what they asked for.
Heidi Mendoza and Luke Espiritu are two of those I voted for. Mendoza’s performance as then COA chairperson was very laudable and too forceful not to remember it. Espiritu is relatively an unknown but judging from his debates the first time he ran for senator last 2022, and from his campaign sorties, including interviews, I thought he could become a fearless and fruitful legislator. Both of them spent a measly sum each for their campaign; from sources, not more than PhP2.5M for Heidi and around that much for Luke. Yet, they garnered at least 8.6 million and 6.4 million votes respectively.
Others spent pretty huge sums, (running to billions of pesos, according to some estimates) for their campaign but hey either fell short or barely made it to the magic 12.
Clearly, spending very large sums for a campaign is not a guarantee to win elections; nor spending too little for lack of resources. Vote buying was not as rampant as before, maybe partly because of the COMELEC’s constant warnings? Or, the voters may have somehow matured and there are now only a few “bobotantes”?
Negative campaigning seems to have no place anymore in a political campaign. In Benguet for example, a candidate was openly questioning the integrity of his opponent in speeches. The result? That rival easily won his seat with an unexpected wide margin.
Some candidates (e.g. a party list group) found an ingenious way to say, “vote for me”. It distributed an RFID card to voters who owned vehicles.
Somehow, there were telltale signs that the choices of many voters were influenced by fake news foisted by troll farms against candidates like Heidi, and against administration candidates. Mercifully, Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan were not under the fake news radar, since they were down in the pre-election surveys, thus they were able to ride the wave of votes from the Millenial and Gen Z generations to victory.
I think, this exercise is the most orderly and clean elections in the recent past; less violence, less problems, and less chaotic.
The result of the elections, especially in the senatorial contest, produced two types of oppositionists; the legitimate (pinklawan/dilawan) and the pseudo-opposition who are primarily after their self-interests (described as obstructionist by a govt Usec?). The obstructionist is headed by VP Sara who boldly intoned that they will form a principled and constructive opposition. Coming from somebody who regularly disdains govt protocols, and attacks every government program, am not sure what she means by that. It could mean a fractious, selfish, divisive and polarizing opposition!
The shifting wind of our elections is upon us; hopefully it will bear better fruit for the welfare of the people, especially the less fortunate. **
