Eleksyon na

Base sa distribution report as of May 2 na nireport ni Garcia sa mga reporters, 46.004 million ng VIS ay 70 percent ng total electorate population. Sa CAR at Region 1—100 percent ng VIS ang naipadala (hmm bakit kaya inuna ang solid north?); sa NCR 56 percent, sa Region 2 60 percent; Region 3, 83 percent; Region 4A 94 percent; R4-B 76 percent; R5 , 95 percent; R6-45 percent; Region 7, 94 percent; Region 8, 16 percent; Region 9, 24 percent; Region 10, 61 percent; Region 11-70 percent; Region 12 (Sarangani at North Cotabato pa lang), 30 percent; CARAGA 32 percent; at BARMM 83.

Ani Garcia, sa NCR 56 percent of the registered voters have received their voter’s information sheet. Only the Cordillera Administrative Region and the Ilocos Region have completed the distribution. Sabi ni Garcia nagdeploy ang Comelec ng mga individuals para personal ng iabot ang VIS sa mga registered voters. (Sana naman hindi ito pinasamahan ng mga kandidatong mamimigay ng IDs nila at mga ewallets).

Based on Comelec’s data, there are 65,709,572 individuals in the country and 1,697,215 overseas Filipinos who have registered to vote in the upcoming polls. Overseas voting already started on April 10 and will end on May 9. Only 9K of 84K registered local absentee voters participated in April 27-29 exercise.

Mga planong dirty tricks

May mga post sa Twitter at Facebook na ang survey frontrunner daw ay nag train ng 500 tao upang maging inspector sa polling booth at tila ay may kakontsaba na inspectors na siyang gumagabay sa mga botante sa vote counting machine. May mga nagbunyag na kapag nagpatulong daw dito sa mga tao nung frontrunner ay ita tamper ang balota kung ito’y sa kalaban para ma discard at maging spoiled ballot.

Meron pa ring mga nagsabi na huwag magsuot ng pink sa halalan (at red na lang) para hindi mapaginitan ang mga balota ng kalaban ng frontrunner. Kung baga, lolokohin ng mga botante ang mga trained precinct guards ng frontrunner.

Local absentee voting

May 9,000 lang or 11 percent of the 84,221 local absentee voters registered with the Comelec participated in the local absentee voting.

Most of the voters who participated in the LAV are from the Philippine National Police (PNP) with 3,929, followed by members of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) with 1,731, Philippine Army with 926, media with 806, and Comelec with 586.

Those with the LAV voters are the Department of Education (522), Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (510), Philippine Coast Guard (73). Bureau of Fire Protection (15), Department of the Interior and Local Government (3) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (1).

The LAV was conducted by Comelec from April 27 to 29, 2022.

Based on their initial assessment, Comelec Commissioner George M. Garcia said the conduct of the LAV was successful with no untoward incident.

Overseas absentee voting

Sa OAV naman nagsimula ito ng “chaotic at disorganized” on the first day of Sunday (May 1) sa Hongkong at delays sa North America as the ballots and other election paraphernalia from Manila got stalled in transit sa Alaska.

A record 1,697,215 registered overseas absentee voters began voting for national candidates on April 10 until Election Day on May 9. Overseas voters may only vote for president, vice president, 12 senators, and a party list group.

Sabi ng Comelec ang isang buwang OAV ay nadelay sa five Philippine foreign posts dahil sa hirap ng pagship ng mga election materials.

Overseas voting did not start as scheduled on April 10 in the Philippine embassies in Wellington, New Zealand; Islamabad, Pakistan, and Dili, Timor-Leste, as well as in the Philippine consulates general in Milan, Italy and in New York because of logistical difficulties.

The start of overseas voting in the Philippine consulate general in Shanghai, China, was also suspended while the city is under a strict COVID-19 lockdown.

According to Comelec, half of the country’s 92 foreign posts would use an automated elections system.

A total 1,023,637 overseas absentee voters will vote in-person; 556,760 voters will mail their ballot, while 116,818 voters may choose either option.

Kamakailan lang sinabi ni Commissioner in charge Marlon Casquejo na malamang i-suspend nila ang overseas voting sa Iraq, Algeria, Chad, Tunisia, Libya, Afghanistan and Ukraine, which have a combined 127 registered voters.

House probe

Mga Pinoy voters sa Hongkong ay nagcomplain na ang Philippine consular office could not accommodate the thousands who trooped to the Bayanihan Center at Victoria Road, Kennedy Town, to cast their vote.

Dahil dito pinaiimbistigahan ni Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite yung “chaotic and disorganized election system in Hong Kong” matapos mag complain ang isang miyembro ng United Filipinos-Migrante HK member na ang Philippine consular office failed to accommodate all Filipinos who queued up to avail themselves of absentee voting.

Dolores Pelaez of Unifil-Migrante said there were only five, instead of 10, vote-counting machines (VCMs) provided by Comelec to the consular office.

She added that thousands had already lined up to vote at the Bayanihan center before Hong Kong Consul General Raly Tejada announced that only 3,000 would be allowed to cast their vote.

There are some 93,000 overseas Filipino workers who are registered voters in Hong Kong.

Disenfranchisement

Sabi ni Gaite na hihilingin niya sa House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms to summon Comelec, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Hong Kong consular office to study the complaint.

Ani Gaite:

“We cannot allow the potential massive disenfranchisement of our overseas voters due to the ineptitude and lack of proper organizing by these officials.”

Overseas Filipino voters in North America have also expressed fear of possible disenfranchisement among their group, blaming the apparent unpreparedness of Comelec and Philippine embassies and consulates and their failure to properly disseminate information on the electoral process.

According to Migrante International, overseas voters received during previous elections their ballots ahead of the starting day of the overseas absentee voting.

“But this time, Comelec will be sending voting ballots in North America only after April 10. This is totally unacceptable and we believe it’s a deliberate move to deny our kababayan of their right to vote,” said Pelaez, also the secretary general of Migrante International.

“Overseas voting starts on April 10, 2022, but we still do not have any electronic or printed information regarding the process for overseas voting. Nor do we have our ballots,” read an open letter-petition published on advocacy platform The Action Network and addressed to Philippine Consul General in New York Elmer Cato, Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez, and Comelec.

The letter-petition was signed by more than a hundred members of the Filipino American community in the United States, including human rights lawyer Ruben Carranza, poet Luis H. Francia and writer Eric Gamalinda.

According to the signatories, the delays in the transport of election materials and the general lack of timely information on the voting process was “unacceptable,” stressing that “it has the effect of disenfranchising voters,” particularly in the northeastern United States.

“It also raises reasonable concerns that the Comelec and the Philippine Consulate in New York might be intentionally and purposefully denying our constitutionally protected right to vote in this year’s elections,”

dagdag pa niya.

Sa laki ng budget para sa May 2022 polls, the overseas Filipino voters said the consulate “must already have been empowered, organized, and prepared to act as the sole enfranchising agent for Filipino voters.”

One of the signatories to the letter-petition, Grace Bejosano, a first-time overseas absentee voter in New York, said among her concerns included the period of time it would take for her to receive the ballot and mail it back to the consulate before the deadline as she cited delays in postal services due to COVID-19.

Unfair

In an advisory on its website dated April 9, the Office of the Consulate General in New York said the VCMs, overseas ballots and other materials intended for the May 9 national elections in the Philippines were still in transit.

It said it was informed that these election paraphernalia that were shipped by Comelec from Manila were in Alaska but were expected to arrive “within the week.”

“While we understand the concern of some kababayan about the delay in the arrival of election paraphernalia, their assertion of possible disenfranchisement and of us not being forthcoming about the said delay is unfair on our part as the delay is beyond the control of the consulate,” it added.

Sought for comment, Romualdez described as “unfounded insinuations” the issues raised by the signatories in the letter-petition.

Cato also said that the Philippine embassy and consulate could not be held responsible for the delay in the delivery of the VCMs and other election paraphernalia because they had nothing to do with the shipment as this was the responsibility of Comelec.

There are 39,048 individuals in the certified list of registered overseas voters covering the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

OAV population

Base sa research ng Inquirer, mayroong 1,697,215 overseas voters para sa Mayo 2022, of which 1,677,631 ay land-based at 19,584 ay seafarers.

Mula dito 191,799 ay nasa Dubai; 151,968 sa Riyadh; 98,403 sa Abu Dhabi; 93,886 sa Hongkong at 39,048 sa United States.

they added.