In The Philippines, The Fix Was In — But it’s Fixable

In The Philippines, The Fix Was In — But it’s Fixable

Loida Nicolas Lewis

By Loida Nicolas Lewis, Agusto Pedalizo and Trinidad Lopez

Just weeks ago, the Philippines elected Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos as its new president, with Sara Duterte as vice-president. Or so it appears.

In fact, the election was a fraud. And now, with the winners to be officially declared on June 30, an entire nation is at risk.

Forget for a moment the question of whether Marcos is fit to rule the Philippines. Set aside, too, certain otherwise inescapable realities – namely, that he happens to be the son of Ferdinand Marcos, the late dictator who stole billions of dollars from his own country, and that Duterte is the daughter of the current president Rodrigo Duterte.

Trinidad Lopez

At issue here, above all, is an election process that demonstrably smacked of deception. The candidates bought votes on a massive scale. The machines deployed to count those votes were either pre- programmed or defective. The outcome produced programmed or defective. The outcome produced identical ratios of 68% for Marcos Jr and 32% for Robredo for every election results countrywide, reported within 5 hours from end of voting hours. That alone was statistically impossible.

The Commission on Elections, known as COMELEC and responsible for regulating elections, then compounded the problem. Historically elections in the Philippines, with a population of 110 million across its more than 7,000 islands, consistently require weeks to count and verify all the returns. Yet this year the unofficial results were reported WITHIN 5 HOURS, a rapidity nothing short of unbelievable.

Agusto Pedalizo

Let’s connect some dots here, shall we? First, all the COMELEC commissioners were appointed by President Duterte. Second, the contracts for managing election logistics were given to Dennis Uy, a Duterte crony. Third, mounting evidence suggests that voting machines were literally programmed to manufacture results favorable to Marcos and Duterte. No wonder the claim of a massive Marcos-Duterte victory has encountered widespread skepticism and growing protests by rallies in front of many Philippine Consulates.

But the proof of corruption rises well beyond the anecdotal, according to the International Observers Mission (IOM), sponsored by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines. IOM reported the elections were “marred by a higher level of failure of the electronic voting system than ever before, along with a higher level of blatant vote-buying, disturbing level of red-tagging (especially of Leni Robredo) and a number of incidents of deadly violence. At least 40 people have been killed and 20 others wounded in several election related incidents. The IOM concluded, “This election does not meet the standard of ‘free and fair.’”

Allowing these election results to stand will spell trouble for a country that already faces more than its share.
Three families will control six of the 24 seats in the Senate for the first time in its history. Only one or two Senators will be in a position to offer any legitimate opposition.

More broadly, the current election outcome threatens to turn a once-thriving democracy into an oligarchy. A Marcos-Duterte tandem, established through the lowest dynastic politics, will engineer illegal profits for personal enrichment of those in power, all in disregard – and at the expense – of the Filipino people.

A coalition of Filipinos in the United States and Canada are growing increasingly aggressive in advocating for justice here. We represent US Filipinos for GoodGovernance, Filipino Americans Human Rights Alliance, Global Filipinos Diaspora Canada and more than 200 other organizations in the US and Canada.

We reject this presumptive election victory because it’s based on lies and disinformation, and because Marcos and Duterte represent outright tyranny. We have urged Leni Robredo, the presidential candidate who supposedly came in second, against conceding defeat. Honesty and fairness, in the name of freedom, must prevail.

Accordingly, we demand an immediate, independent investigation by NAMFREL of the massive irregularities and electoral violations that have cast doubt on the credibility of this election. We demand that the U.S. government stop lending any and all military assistance to the Philippines with its potential to snuff out dissent and even prompt the murder of anyone opposed to the Marcos-Duterte tandem.

We demand, too, that the $353 million contempt order issued by a U.S. district against Marcos be enforced.

We hold Marcos accountable for the $10 billion plunder of state assets and the $4 billion of cumulative unpaid estate taxes. We likewise hold President Duterte accountable for his crimes against humanity with the 30,000 extrajudicial killings of innocent lives (including mistaken identity and “collateral damage”), most of whom are dissenters, student leaders, lawyers, journalists and even priests.

It’s no exaggeration to call this election an act of attempted murder. The victim targeted here is democracy. The perpetrators are named Marcos and Duterte. Leaving control of the national and local governments concentrated in the hands of a few privileged families would stifle any hope of genuine reform.

Under such circumstances, no country, least of all ours, can survive for long.

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Loida Nicolas Lewis is chair of US Filipinos for Good Governance. Agusto Pedalizo is chair of the Filipino Americans Human Rights Alliance. Trinidad Lopez is chair and founder of Global Pinoy Diaspora Canada