Nasaan ang Balota?: The fight for a fair and democratic election season in the Philippines
The Filipinos of New York and the tri-State area shouted and rallied outside the Philippine Consulate building in Manhattan to demand answers and transparency for overseas voting.
There’s just a little less than one month until the scheduled electoral event of the Philippines, in which a new President is chosen to succeed the incumbent Rodrigo Duterte. Throughout his presidency, Duterte has faced many backlash and criticism for his style of leadership, and is labelled as a “strongman” because of controversial actions he’s taken and condemned remarks that are considered misogynistic and harmful.
The presidential race has attracted much attention because some of the presidential and vice presidential candidates include the descendants of the current strongman and late dictator, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and vice presidential candidate Sara Duterte-Carpio. As the presidential elections move forward, Filipino citizens living overseas have been faced with a delay of election and voting materials as consuls around the world have been “chaotic and disorganized”, disenfranchising voters.
Nasaan ang Balota? (Where are the ballots?)
The piercing breeze of a cold April morning brushes through the streets of 5th Avenue, where in the corner by 46th street stands the Philippine Consulate building in midtown Manhattan, New York. The red, white, blue, and yellow of the Filipino flag flashes amongst the clear skies, above the busy New York streets.
Signs, that were lit up in the colors of the flag, were held up with messages that said Guard Against Election Fraud!, We Demand Transparency & Accountability!, as well as a styrofoam sign that had part of the open letter for the Consul General (Mr. Elmer Cato), Ambassador (Mr. Jose Manuel G. Romualdez) and the Commissions on Elections (COMELEC) Office, which is the list of demands for a more fairer and democratic election process for overseas Filipinos:
Electronic and printed voting materials should be disseminated now. We should not wait for the voting machines to come in from the Philippines.
A help desk is created to assist voters who have questions about the voting process (via walk-ins, phone, and email).
Timely and transparent information on the voting and vote counting process will be shared on various social media platforms, including through live-streaming to ensure that our ballots are received, properly handled, and counted by the Consulate.
Ensure voters' right to cast their ballot regardless of any address or delivery issues, including lost or damaged ballots or ballots rendered void by error.
Information regarding the mechanics of tallying or canvassing votes to determine how many individuals can volunteer as poll watchers.
“Many people haven't even received their ballots, there's been a lack of information about how they can vote: what's the process? And what can they expect? Why were there such intense delays in receiving their ballots?” Bernadette Patino told me. Patino is a Pratt Institute graduate who is part of New Jersey’s Malaya Movement. “This is a very politically charged elections in the Philippines […] people are concerned, like, you know, who's going to be leading the country?”.
Carlo Ceballos, a New School graduate who is part of the Anakbayan grassroots organization in New York City, told me that this movement goes beyond the candidates running in the Philippines. “This is about the issues that so many of the people are experiencing right now, which includes [the] marginalization and sacred oppression of indigenous people of the working class [and the] youth and student activism repression of them.”
Filipino democracy hangs by the thread as it has faced decades of corruption, not just by the brutality of Rodrigo Duterte’s administration and his bloody “war on drugs”, but the nation has also faced the martial law era of Ferdinand Marcos throughout the 1970s. “[In] my experience working in government, I kind of saw the corruption that can happen even in a small cultural agency, like really with my own two eyes.” Patino said, who worked in the National Film Archive of the Philippine government in Manila, Philippines. And with raising concerns of election fraud and interference of voting rights for overseas Filipino citizens, what will come of the Philippine presidency?