After a week riddled with technical setbacks and cheating allegations, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced the winners of the 2019 senatorial race earlier today, May 22. The administration-backed coalition Hugpong ng Pagbabago secured nine of the 12 seats, while Otso Diretso, the opposition slate, failed to gain a foothold in the Magic 12.
New batch of senators
Re-electionist Cynthia Villar, the topnotcher in both the surveys and unofficial tally, placed first in the race with 25,283,727 votes. Second place at 22,029,788 votes is fellow re-electionist Grace Poe. On the other hand, first-timer and former presidential special assistant Bong Go garnered 20,657,702 votes, ranking third.
Former Taguig representative Pia Cayetano followed Go at fourth place with 19,789,019 votes while former corrections bureau chief Bato dela Rosa collected 19,004,225 votes and placed fifth. Re-electionist Sonny Angara landed on the sixth spot after garnering 18,161,862 votes.
Lito Lapid returns to the Senate with 16,965,464 votes at seventh place. Meanwhile, former Ilocos Norte governor Imee Marcos makes her debut in the legislative arm, finishing eighth with 15,882,628 votes. With 15,510,026 votes, former presidential adviser Francis Tolentino found himself at ninth place.
At 10th place with 14,668,665 votes is former Senate President Koko Pimentel. Coming second to the last in the running, former senator Bong Revilla obtained 14,624,445 votes.
In last place with 14,504,936 votes is re-electionist Nancy Binay.
Of the opposition slate, only re-electionist Bam Aquino was within kicking distance of the top 12, finishing with 14,144,923 votes at 14th place—less than 400,000 votes away from Binay.
Election issues
Concerns over election irregularities, however, continued to persist before the final results were released. In the past week, protests led by youth and labor groups have cropped up, alleging that the anomalies faced were part of an attempt at widespread cheating.
Party-list groups stormed the Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros last May 14, arguing that reports of tampering and vote mismatches raised alarms among some of the student voters.
On the other hand, defeated senatorial candidates Erin Tañada, Neri Colmenares, and Leody De Guzman found themselves among rallyists trooped outside the Philippine International Convention Center last May 17 for what was dubbed a “Black Friday” protest. Protestors there, too, demanded answers from Comelec, drawing parallels to the anomalies seen during the 2004 presidential elections.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Party (LP) approached Comelec on the technical glitches, filing a motion to form an independent body to investigate these alleged irregularities. Members of the House of Representatives have also raised similar concerns and called for a congressional inquiry on the matter.
A large number of vote-counting machines—ranging from 400 to 600 according to the commission’s estimates—were inoperational during the voting proceedings, while the transparency server saw a seven-hour setback in its transmission of votes, delaying the unofficial count.
What lies ahead
With the opposition failing to secure seats, President Rodrigo Duterte may find stronger support in pushing for his most important policies. The House of Representatives, which is dominated by Duterte’s supporters, had backed most of these in the past, such as the imposition of martial law in Mindanao, the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility, the death penalty, and the draft charter of a federalist form of government.
The Senate, meanwhile, has been less supportive, with the minority bloc serving as staunch critics of these policies. Even now, bills passed in Congress have languished in the Upper House. The bill for the revival of the death penalty for drug-related offenses, for instance, was approved by Congress in 2017; it has not progressed in the Senate since.
With Aquino failing to secure another term in the Senate and Antonio Trillanes ending his term this year, only four senators remain in the dwindling opposition group, which may see these contested bills gaining traction.
Amid these concerns, Senate President Vicente Sotto III assured that the legislative arm will still be autonomous despite administration allies dominating the floor. “I would like to maintain an independent, sincere, transparent Senate,” he previously told reporters at a media forum.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo, on the other hand, cited that the Senate’s independence is evidenced by past history. “They have to support the president when the agenda of the president is for the good of the people and they will have to oppose it if they feel in their conscience that it ran counter to the interest of the nation,” he continued.
Senator Kiko Pangilinan announced his resignation as president of LP last May 21, taking responsibility for their slate’s overwhelming defeat. Quezon City Sixth District representative Kit Belmonte also resigned from his post as LP secretary general.
However, Vice President Leni Robredo, who serves as the party’s chairperson, rejected their resignation. “Much work remains to be done, and they will do it, together,” Barry Gutierrez, Robredo’s spokesperson, said in a statement.
