MANILA — To reject Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s apparent victory as president, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Commission on Elections headquarters in Intramuros, Manila, on Tuesday, claiming the election was tainted by fraud.
Based on the partial, unofficial results from the transparency server of Comelec, Marcos has sustained an insurmountable lead of more than 16 million votes over his closest rival, Vice President Leni Robredo.
In the face of a resounding triumph for the son and namesake of the former dictator who was ousted 36 years ago by the People Power Revolution, the results of the elections are questioned chiefly due to irregularities in their operation.
“Running priest” Fr. Robert Reyes, one of the people before the Comelec headquarters on the morning after the elections, cast doubt on the speed of the transmission of votes, particularly since some 1,800 vote-counting machines malfunctioned on election day, by the poll body’s count.
“It was so fast, that our conclusion is that it’s magical. It was a magical moment. But what kind of magical? A dark magical moment in Philippine history,” Reyes said. “We’re not mesmerized. We’re not bewitched. We’re not enthralled,” Reyes told reporters partly in Filipino as he was helping set up a shrine to the Virgin Mary.
Reyes and his group were about to pray for clean elections in front of the Comelec office for the 11th week in a row when a large gathering of students started heading towards the poll body’s headquarters to stage a much angrier protest.
Protesters surrounded the Comelec headquarters as they chant against martial law, the Comelec, the Marcoses, and President Rodrigo Duterte; with cops being the only barriers preventing them from pressing farther.
“The conclusion of these elections is simple. This is the worst. This is the most rotten. And this is the most shameless when it comes to cheating,” Kontra Daya convenor Danilo Arao said during the protest.
Arao, like Reyes and other speakers during protest, cited the election glitches as potential sources of fraud, despite the Comelec’s assertion that these did not affect the credibility of the elections.
