The aftermath of the elections

The 2016 national and local elections were held last May 9, in which the Filipino citizens decided on numerous government posts, including the presidency, vice presidency, and 12 senatorial chairs. The election itself was filled with a lot of notable events and happenings, ranging from data breaches to coin-tosses.

The LaSallian presents a brief recap of the major events that surrounded the elections, as well as explain its impacts and aftermath.

What’s new?

In an effort to have organized elections, Comelec announced earlier this year that the poll body would be using vote counting machines (VCMs) in replacement of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for the elections. The VCMs are said to be updated models of the PCOS machines used during the 2010 and 2013 elections. James Jimenez, spokesperson for Comelec, was quoted as saying that the VCMs come with built-in self-diagnosing lenses, which alert machine operators to insert a cleaning sheet if the lens has already become dirty.

Other features of the machine include a secured source code that ensures the votes are interpreted correctly, an ultraviolet lamp that makes sure no fake ballot is inserted to the machine, digital signatures of the Board of Election Inspectors, and a voter verification paper audit trail (VVPAT).

In line with the new voting machines, a source code review was made to allow participants to analyze, line by line, the software that was used in the 2016 elections. The source code review includes two phases, namely, a review of the base code and a review of the final customized source code. The first phase of the source code review was done in October 2015 at DLSU, and the second phase was conducted in February 2016.

Issues faced in the election season

No matter the technological advancements and the advanced preparations for the elections, this year’s voting procedure was not without its inconveniences.

This year’s national and local elections became witness to the fact that nuisance candidates are not the only ones that can potentially be weeded out and disqualified. Three petitions were forwarded to the Comelec to disqualify presidential candidate Grace Poe for not meeting the 10-year residency requirement mandatory for presidentiables.

The Comelec en banc then proceeded to formally disqualify Poe on December 23 due to ineligibility stemming from nationality issues and the residency requirement. Poe said she would appeal to the Supreme Court (SC), which bore fruit on December 28 when the Court sent temporary restraining orders against the Comelec’s decision. The SC then affirmed Poe’s residency and nationality on March 8 this year on a vote of 9-6, and made their decision final and executory on April 9.

Another issue that has been prevalent in the elections is overspending. According to the Omnibus Election Code, presidential and vice presidential candidates with support from a political party can only spend P10 per voter, other candidates with political party support can spend P3 per voter, independent candidates are allowed P5 per voter, and political parties/groups are also allowed P5 per voter. This rule is implemented to stop aspirants from overspending on electoral campaigns.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who also ran for the top post of the land, reacted last year on multiple reports claiming that the other four presidential aspirants spent over P2 billion in television ads way ahead of the designated campaign period. “The question we must ask is this: How will these politicians recover the scandalous amounts they spend for their campaign? The simple answer is that they will steal from public funds, or will at least be tempted to do so. An alternative would be to give favors to rich contributors, to the detriment of public interest,” she was quoted saying.

The number of voters is estimated at 54.5 million, leading to an estimated P545 million cap in expenses. “A president’s salary is only P120,000 a month. He or she may thus expect to earn only P8.64 million for the six years that he or she is in office. These big spenders therefore cannot say that they will earn their money back if elected,” Santiago countered.

Issues faced by the elections do not stop at contested eligibility and overspending candidates. More problems surfaced to hamper the elections and possibly cause it to fail, one example being the hacking group that targeted the Comelec website.

On March 27, hackers that identified themselves as members of Anonymous Philippines were able to access the Comelec website and vandalized the page. Within the same day, another group of hackers calling themselves part of LulzSec Pilipinas put up a website called “wehaveyourdata,” which contained 340 gigabyte’s worth of data from registered voters. According to TrendMicro, a global security firm, the said breach is the largest data breach in terms of number of affected people at 55 million registered voters, whose data and identities were compromised due to the data leak.

Numerous election violations committed by aspirants were also reported by netizens before and on the election day itself. One of the most prominent violations was campaigning on election day. Supporters of different candidates were handing out flyers, sample ballots, and items bearing candidates’ faces and names on election day, although campaign period supposedly ended the day before, and all campaigning activities had to be suspended prior.

Vote buying remains a perennial issue encountered during election season. Aside from the usual pre-filled ballots being given out and illicit exchanges of envelopes filled with money, some of the schemes fell on the unusual side. News reports on the night of the elections claimed local aspirants were buying votes in the form of lugaw (rice porridge) with P1000 bills hidden inside.

This election season also isn’t a stranger to contested victories and alleged cheaters. San Juan City Vice Mayor Francis Zamora contested his rival Mayor Guia Gomez’s win in the last local elections for the mayoral position of the city. Zamora claims that Guia used her lugaw stations to buy votes. Guia, on the other hand, fired back at Zamora by claiming she also had evidence that Zamora was engaging in vote buying.

The upper government scene also had its share in contesting votes, in the form of the tight vice presidential race between Liberal Party bet Leni Robredo and independent candidate Bongbong Marcos. The latter’s team has repeatedly accused the former’s of rigging the vote count.

The election period has come and gone, but some issues still persist. The change in hashcode is still being contested by some to this day. On May 9, election day, Comelec admitted that a new script was placed in the transparency server. The code was meant to be a fix for the letter “ñ” displayed only as “?” in the unofficial counts. The camp of vice presidential contender Marcos, however, insisted that after this code was placed, his lead over Robredo started to dwindle, alluding to election rigging.

Winners in the elections have been named and proclaimed. President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, who is next in line for the top seat in the government, will be inaugurated on June 30. Controversies still surround the election, however, and on June 28, vice presidential candidate Marcos is set to file an electoral protest before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.