COMELEC CHAIR GEORGE Erwin Garcia and his fellow commissioners managed to dribble off from the persistent calls by concerned citizens, especially the TNTrio and other IT professional groups, for clarifications on certain discrepancies that plagued the May 9, 2022 national elections, leading to a strong belief of its rigging.
Somehow, the mid-term elections of May 12, 2025 appeared to be generally acceptable.
The election of former senators Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan, and other known genuine opposition candidates in the lower house, like Chel Diokno and his two other nominees under the Akbayan Partylist, Leila de Lima of ML Partylist, and other nominees of party-lists ACT Teachers and Kabataan, not to mention other local winning candidates, have toned down the honest-to-goodness cries of “DAYAAN!” from various groups which have been in the forefront of the fight for truth, justice, human rights and good governance.
‘With the 2025 mid-term elections’ problems of ACMs malfunctioning, disenfranchisement of voters, uncontrolled vote-buying, harassment of certain candidates’ campaign sorties, etc., is Comelec up to its mandate of fair, transparent, credible elections?’
COMELEC’S BASIC TASK
However, it must be noted that the billion-peso acquisition and use of the Korean-tech Miru in this just-concluded election did not completely result in a transparent and fair handling by Comelec.
Why did Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia not allow the foreign observers to watch the voting exercise, as required under the law?
State forces managed to cripple well-known progressive groups like Bayan Muna and Gabriela party-lists with massive disinformation, red-tagging, and actual harassment and intimidation of their supporters in their campaign sorties.
Comelec failed to act decisively to prevent such unlawful actions during the campaign period, even when these violations were brought to their attention on time.
Comelec’s basic task was to ensure that all candidates were given equal protection in their campaigning, and guilty parties promptly confronted and held accountable under the law.
TRANSPARENCY, DISQUALIFICATIONS
Technical glitches in the ACMs resulted in the disenfranchisement of countless number of voters. During the early hours of public media revelations of the vote counts of the leading candidates, there appeared confusing numbers.
Comelec failed to erase doubts expressed by netizens about the integrity of the information relayed by mainstream media, which was supposedly in close coordination with Comelec.
Also, the OFW voters met difficulties, or actually unable to vote, given the changes in the original system. They were unfamiliar with the necessity of re-registration and voting online, and only knew and were used to manual voting.
In other words, Comelec has not completely come out clean and transparent with this May 12, 2025 elections. In other words, Comelec has yet to prove itself incorruptible and able to run the next election exercise with efficiency and integrity.
Not to forget, moreover, is that Comelec mishandled disqualification cases.
Strong reservations were in the minds of voters themselves and the disqualification-targeted candidates. Aren’t Comelec guidelines on candidate-qualifications clear?
SHORTFALLS
Other issues came up: Were timelines for ballot preparations prepared realistically months before? Were protection measures on technology malfunctioning readied, to avoid delays and money wastage?
Manpower requirements at precinct levels and so-called hot spots should have been determined and scheduled without any hitch.
There were cases about voters being made to wait for hours under the hot weather, and voters not finding their names in their precincts where they voted in the past. What happened here?
Comelec’s shortcomings are clear. It failed to explain many discrepancies pointed out by IT professional groups and others about the May 9, 2022 elections.
Attempts to dialogue with Comelec chair George Erwin Garcia were simply brushed off.
With the 2025 mid-term elections’ problems of ACMs malfunctioning, disenfranchisement of voters, uncontrolled vote-buying, harassment of certain candidates’ campaign sorties, etc., is Comelec up to its mandate of fair, transparent, credible elections?
The billion peso cost for the machine did not justify it. With many shortcomings, error,malfunctioning machines. It is not the worth. And also the unexplained printing of balloted differ for what had been voted is unacceptable.