2025 Elections

12:14 am PST November 25, 2024

2025 elections seen as most transparent

ELECTION watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) is confident that next year's elections will be one of the country's most transparent electoral exercises.

"I feel that this election cycle is one of the most transparent. We have been allowed to observe nearly every electoral process," said PPCRV's IT Director Director William Yu during The Manila Times-DZRH TownHall.

Yu said the most outstanding feature of the 2025 polls is the online voting system (OVS), the first ever in the country's election history. The OVS will give all overseas Filipino workers, including seafarers, around the world, the convenience of voting using their cellphones.

In past elections, overseas voters cast their ballots either by mail or voting personally at Philippine embassies or foreign missions.

During the 2022 elections, there were around 1.7 million registered migrant voters spread across 92 Philippine posts overseas.

Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting IT head William Yu gestures during an interview with Al Vitangcol and Rose Babiera. The Townhall interview was held by DZRH and The Manila Times on Nov. 12, 2024. PHOTO BY MIKE ALQUINTO

Comelec spent more than P400 million for overseas voting but the turnout was a disappointing 39 percent.

Yu said PPCRV was still working out ways to monitor the online voting system.

"We have not finalized that yet, this being the first time the system will be used. Even the procedures are actually being drafted for the first time," he said.

PPCRV has made suggestions, including a biometric check during the voting itself.

Addressing concerns about the absence of paper ballots and printed ERS in the implementation of OVCS, Yu said he expects the Comelec to come up with an alternative means to record the poll results.

"We expect there will be pictographic measures that will be in place to ensure that [we], as observers, get access to people who vote without violating the sanctity of voting," he said.

Another big feature of the 2025 polls is the voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) or voter's receipts and election returns (ER) QR codes with machine-readable results.

Yu said the VVPAT is useful in doing the random manual audit (RMA) because it eliminates the manual encoding and counting of votes by using a cellphone to scan the QR code for results.

"Instead of encoding results, we scan the QR code and compare it to the printed results and to the automated results. That's one of the key features we requested to increase transparency for this automated election cycle," he said.

Yu also said the Comelec would only be successful in regulating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other forms of social media technology during the election campaign if the public cooperates fully.

"This system only works if people actually report the [existence] of fake news, deepfakes, and whatever fakes," he said.

12:18 am PST November 20, 2024

117 senatorial bets get 'nuisance' tag

By William B. Depasupil

Commission on Elections Chairman George Garcia. PHOTO BY MIKE ALQUINTO

(UPDATE) THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has heeded the recommendation of its Law Division to declare 117 senatorial aspirants as nuisance candidates. This is more than half the 183 aspirants who filed their certificates of candidacy for the position.

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said that while the motu propio petition had been granted, the aspirants could still file a motion for reconsideration before the Comelec en banc or seek a restraining order from the Supreme Court.

Six of the 117 aspirants have already filed a motion for reconsideration, which the Comelec en banc will decide next week, Garcia said.

Meanwhile, nuisance petitions against 300 local candidates are still being deliberated and will be decided by the end of November.

Garcia said he was hopeful that everything would be settled before the Comelec started printing the official ballots, which was why they decided the cases early, so the affected aspirants could get due process by going all the way to the Supreme Court.

In deciding who would be considered nuisance candidates, the Comelec took into account the Supreme Court ruling on Marquez v. Comelec, which states that unpopularity and non-membership in a political party are not sufficient grounds to declare one a nuisance candidate.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia walks past a display of ballot boxes during the opening of the Comelec's 1st National Convention of Election Officials at the World Trade Center in Pasay City on Nov. 19, 2024. The Comelec chairman said the national convention, which will run from Nov. 19 to 21, convenes all Comelec city/municipal poll officers, provincial election supervisors (PES), and regional election directors (REDs) for training on the new automated election system (AES) that will be used in the 2025 elections. He also said the assembly would serve as a venue to award outstanding Comelec personnel and honor retirees and those have who passed away. PHOTOS BY MIKE ALQUINTO

But the poll chief also pointed out that there was no hard and fast rule that if one were a member of a political party, he or she would no longer be deemed a nuisance, saying that there were candidates who were able to secure a certificate of nomination (CON) from a political party to avoid being declared a nuisance.

The Omnibus Election Code (OEC) defines a nuisance candidate as one who files a certificate of candidacy (COC) to put the election process in mockery or disrepute or to cause confusion among the voters by the similarity of the names of the registered candidates; or which clearly demonstrates that the candidate has no bona fide intention to run for the office and to prevent a faithful determination of the true will of the electorate.

08:29 pm PST November 19, 2024

COMELEC CONVENTION

12:20 am PST November 19, 2024

Comelec amends guidelines on use of social media

By William B. Depasupil

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia. PHOTO: MIKE ALQUINTO

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has amended its guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence (AI), social media and other forms of internet technology for election campaigns for the 2025 national and local polls.

The commission on Monday issued amendatory Resolution 11064-A, which exempts private individuals and entities from registering their social media accounts and pages, websites, podcasts, blogs, vlogs, and other online and internet-based campaign platforms primarily designed to solicit votes and promote the election or defeat of a particular candidate or candidates.

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said the en banc's decision was arrived at following consultations with election stakeholders, who cited the need to safeguard the freedom of expression of private individuals.

"The freedom of expression is a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution, serving as a cornerstone of a democratic society by ensuring open dialogue, the free exchange of ideas, and the protection of individual opinions, allowing Filipinos to speak freely on various issues, including politics, governance, social issues and the elections," the resolution read.

Through the amendment, Garcia said, only candidates and registered political parties or coalitions, and party-list organizations are required to register their websites and other social media platforms with the Comelec Education and Information Department (EID).

They are also required to submit a notarized affidavit of undertaking stating that the registered social media and other online election campaign platforms shall not misuse social media, artificial intelligence, and internet technology for disinformation or misinformation against any party or the electoral process. Nor may the same social media campaign be funded or used by any foreign entity to influence and intervene in the Philippine elections.

The Comelec warned that non-compliance with the registration requirement would result in the removal, takedown, or blocking of the contents of concerned social media platforms.

In regulating social media accounts, Garcia said the Comelec has no authority to alter their content, but if they go against standing rules and guidelines, the poll body can move to take them down by reporting the violations.

"It is our commitment for the 2025 election campaign. We are sure that AI and deepfakes and other platforms would be widely used," he said. "Equal opportunity for all. That's our commitment to the Filipino people."

The commission designated as the implementing arm the Task Force sa Katotohanan, Katapatan, at Katarungan sa Halalan (Task Force KKK sa Halalan), led by the EID and the Comelec Law Department, with the assistance of the deputized law enforcement agencies.

The main function of the TF KKK sa Halalan is to monitor registered and unregistered social media and online accounts or websites that are used to endorse or campaign against candidates, political parties, coalitions, or party-list organizations or to propagate false information on the elections, election system and the Comelec.

It is also authorized to investigate detected or reported misuse of social media, AI, and internet technology in digital election campaigns, issue show cause orders, and file complaints on its own about election offenses.

It prohibits the use of "false amplifiers" such as fake accounts, bots, and astroturf groups filled with fake users to propagate disinformation and misinformation.