Introduction
State terrorism and use of all its resources, Marcos stolen wealth and influence, decades of well-oiled and systematic disinformation and misinformation, and electoral fraud guaranteed sham victory to the Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.-Sara Duterte tandem. In particular, these include red-tagging, harassment, extrajudicial killings; failure to seriously implement various Court decisions on the Marcoses; wholesale vote-buying, faulty and pre-programmed Vote Counting Machines (VCMs), voter disenfranchisement; and unchecked historical distortion re the Marcos dictatorship and their rehabilitation.
The impressive, volunteer-driven people’s campaign led by de facto opposition leader Vice-President Leni Robredo stood beaten by the traditional guns, goons and gold employed by the Marcoses using stolen wealth and the support of other oligarchs. The latter has been led by main enabler Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, who gains from this unity of thieves and liars with his daughter Sara as incoming Vice-President.This, despite broad support gained by the Leni campaign including youth, basic sectors, academe, Church, progressive organizations, former government officials, a section of retired military officers, business and others.
Meantime, imperialist masters US and China are quick to congratulate Marcos Jr. to further their own economic and geopolitical interests in the region. Despite glaring US 9th District Court in Hawaii’s conviction of the Marcoses re stolen wealth and even contempt order, the US has turned a blind eye with empty references to long-standing strategic (read: neo-colonial) relations to foil the continued influence of China. China, more direct in expressing joy in the Marcos victory, is expected to pursue its soft debt diplomacy and encroachment into the West Philippine Sea, among others.
Fraud
The Commission on Elections (Comelec), as main government agency in charge of the polls, is composed of Duterte appointees whose independence is highly doubted. Cheating has been more ‘efficient’ under the Automated Election System (AES) based on reports of various independent poll watchdogs such as Kontra Daya, Vote Report PH and International Observers Mission. Kontra Daya deems the 2022 elections as among the ‘dirtiest’ and ‘most shameless when it comes to cheating.’ The group citied the 1,800 malfunctioning VCMs which affected at least 1.4 million voters; 152 reports of illegal campaigning; 109 reports of vote-buying and 55 reports of red tagging on election day.
The AES law provides for an ‘unbroken chains and processes’ to safeguard results but these were not followed. According to poll watchdog AES Watch (1), among these is non-issuance of digital signatures (passcodes) to three election inspectors per precinct whereas three passcodes must be keyed in to boot each of the 106,000 VCMs and transmit election returns (ERs). Comelec issued these only in very few areas as majority only had passcodes issued to chairpersons. The Supreme Court (SC) was petitioned to direct the Comelec but no such order was done.
Using pandemic restrictions as excuse, Comelec likewise disallowed the monitoring of ballot printing and SD (secure digital) card formatting and only did so until after 70 percent of ballots already were printed. Comelec also did not release six findings (2) as regards documented results 90 days before election day as required by law. There was no source code review of central, backup and transparency servers by a reputable international body 90 days before election day. These gaps prevented a thorough check of the ERs versus the transparency servers. The 1.6% difference in tally between Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and Comelec represents 1,696 precinct VCMs or 1,356,800 votes.(3)
Very limited Random manual audit (RMA) in one per district was done through an untransparent Automated Selection Program, with no review of the source code at all. The entire elections logistics have also been awarded to Duterte funder Dennis Uy’s F2 logistics. All these and more show that Marcos and Duterte cheated their way to power.
Reject
But beyond electoral fraud, the rejection of the Marcos-Duterte rule harks back to deep historical injustices on the Filipino people. The Marcoses have sought to return to power when Imelda Marcos ran but lost for president in 1992, a mere six years after they were ousted by the Filipino people in 1986, with the US giving them an escape pass to Hawaii. The Marcoses have never been made to seriously account for their crimes despite the 2003 final Supreme Court ruling on stolen wealth and numerous other court decisions, as well as laws, demonstrating the atrocities of martial law.
The elites have played a key role in the restoration of the Marcoses to power because of their own gains from this ghastly arrangement. Outgoing Pres. Duterte enjoyed the Marcoses’ support during his presidential campaign and gave a Heroes’ Burial to the late dictator. This 2022, former Pres. Gloria Arroyo – herself winning through electoral fraud in 2004 as exposed in the Hello Garci tapes — is believed to have brokered the tandem of what should otherwise be strategic political rivals Marcos and Duterte.
A seeming historical amnesia of the Marcoses’ crimes have been possible with the absence of rigorous study of real Philippine history, which in recent years, has even been scrapped altogether in high school educational curricula. This has made sections of the youth more vulnerable to orchestrated, decades-long lies spun by cyber mercenaries in social media platforms.
It would, however, be a folly to blame the people, especially the masses, as just being duped into choosing the dictator’s son and tyrant’s daughter as leaders. Under an economic and political system ruled by elites, the poor majority’s concrete conditions of precariously eking out a living from day to-day have not allowed them to more meaningfully engage in social and political processes. It is this unjust system that disempowers the people. The blurring of lines between truth and lies, of plain right and wrong, has been possible with massive disinformation and misinformation.
A Marcos 2.0 presidency means continued adherence to neoliberal prescriptions to the detriment of a country lacking national industries, backward agriculture and overall weak domestic economy. An economic team of neoliberal champions has been created.The Duterte government leaves behind a whopping USD 12.6 trillion foreign debt with very little to show for real improvement in people’s lives, and so much instead for corruption scandals one after another. It also means the furtherance of crony and bureaucrat capitalism; and a vicious US-backed counterinsurgency program that does not distinguish between legitimate dissent and armed rebellion and does not address the roots of the armed conflict.
Impunity for gross human rights violations continues, including the sham drug war which killed an estimated 30,000 mostly poor people. The Philippine Commission on Human Rights, in its recent report on the country’s anti-illegal drug campaign, stated that the Duterte government “encouraged a culture of impunity” as it failed to respect and protect the rights of Filipinos. Marcos Jr. has cited the possibility of appointing outgoing Pres. Duterte — who remains proud of this bloody and brutal campaign– as ‘Anti-Illegal Drugs Czar’.
All these means greater misery for workers, peasants, fisherfolk, urban poor, women, and indigenous peoples.
Political System
The election results demonstrate the rottenness of the country’s political system where ruling elites, especially deeply-entrenched political dynasties, control the system. Patronage politics thrives in a backward, pre-industrial economy under neo-colonial influence. Elite democracy is shrouded in the myth of ‘voice of the majority’ when, in truth, the people are confined to select from one faction of the oligarchs to another. Progressives who manage to get elected on the strength of painstaking mass movement campaigns and organizing, despite intensified State attacks, are largely exception than rule.The limits of the electoral exercise show that these are never the be-all and end-all in forging genuine social change and democracy.
Even then, the elections remain an important avenue to push for immediate relief and reforms for the people more commonly referred to as People’s Agenda. These include wage hike, job security, genuine agrarian reform, support for domestic industries, protection of migrants workers, protection of human rights, pursuit of peace talks, and defense of territorial integrity and national sovereignty. The electoral struggles have value insofar as these arouse, organise, and mobilise people for reforms and contribute to strengthening mass organisations.
The relentless attacks against progressive organisations betray the ruling system’s intolerance of any room for opposition. Militant organizations have been under attack, election period or not, with extrajudicial killings, fueled by the red tagging agency NTF-ELCAC (4) and Pres. Duterte as chief redtagger. Under Duterte, notorious red tagging has extended to members of the church, media, academe and even Vice-President Robredo herself.
Progressive candidates with track record of integrity, competence and public service are dwarfed by elites who have vast resources to mount nationwide campaigns and are not targets of political repression. The party-list system has been hijacked by state and elite-backed groups which have treated this as backdoor entries to the House of Representatives.
What Should be Done?
The pink campaign demonstrated people’s volunteerism and passion for change across various sectors. Large sections of the Church took a clear stand against the tyrannical Marcos-Duterte tandem. The youth who especially energized this campaign provides the wellspring for a broader generational movement against tyranny and genuine democracy, strengthening already existing broad alliances of militant and progressive groups.
The Church and faith-based organizations play a key role in heralding the truth, exposing lies and standing against anti-people issues. Grassroots education and organizing, especially among basic sectors of workers, peasants, urban poor, women, are paramount in battling the looming greater tyranny with another Marcos in Malacanang. Parishes and dioceses provide favorable environment for these discernment and discussion groups.
The most potent of these forces for real social change, the basic masses, is central to efforts at battling not just disinformation but outright tyranny. Painstaking efforts must be made at local levels to explain and counter lies, and organise them.
The Church in the exercise of its prophetic role, can and must galvanize the faithful in awareness raising and collective actions for truth and justice:
1. Pursue efforts to investigate the fraudulent 2022 elections; advocate electoral reforms in the AES Law, Party-List Law, and push for the Anti-Dynasty Law.
2. Advocate and campaign for the People’s Agenda with emphasis on human rights and just peace; economic relief for the people; good governance; and national sovereignty. Support efforts to repeal anti-people measures such as the Anti-Terrorism Law and abolish the notorious NTF-ELCAC.
3. Campaign against disinformation. Conduct massive information-awareness activities on the i) atrocities of the Marcos Dictatorship and plunder during Marcos Sr.; and ii) human rights violations under the Duterte government including extrajudicial killings of activists, sham drug war, and brutal counterinsurgency program in rural communities.
4. Demand accountability and pursue justice for the victims of human rights violations of the Marcos and Duterte administrations. In particular, support efforts to pursue the Marcos stolen wealth, unpaid Marcos estate tax, tax evasion conviction of Marcos Jr., graft convictions of Imelda Marcos. Support efforts to prosecute Duterte in the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other courts when he no longer enjoys presidential immunity from suits.
5. Raise moral, material and other support especially for community-level education, information, campaigns and organizing work to uphold human rights and social justice and pushback against all forms of repression and tyranny.
[1] https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2022/05/18/2181925/last-credibility-checkrandom-manual-audit
[2] field test and mock election; audit of accuracy, functionality and security controls of AES software; source code review of VCMs, transmission router, consolidation/canvassing system; certification that the source codes are kept in escrow at the Bangko Sentral; certification that the reviewed source codes are those used by the equipment; and a continuity plan to avoid failure of elections at voting, counting or consolidation
[3] Ibid., 1
[4] National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict
