2019 Philippine general election

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2019 Philippine general election

← 2016 2022 →
Registered	63,665,944
Turnout	46,937,139
2019 Philippine Senate election
← 2016 May 13, 2019 (2019-05-13) 2022 →
← outgoing members Senators elected →
12 (of the 24) seats to the Senate of the Philippines 13 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
First party Second party Third party   Leader Koko Pimentel Mar Roxas Nancy Binay Party PDP–Laban Liberal UNA Alliance HNP Otso Diretso UNA Seats won 9 0 1 Popular vote 203,023,825 50,038,801 14,974,776 Percentage 56.2% 13.8% 4.1%
Senate President before election Tito Sotto NPC Elected Senate President Tito Sotto NPC
2019 Philippine House of Representatives elections
← 2016 May 13, 2019 (2019-05-13) 2022 →
All 304 seats in the House of Representatives of the Philippines 153 seats needed for a majority
Party % Seats +/– PDP–Laban 31.22 82 +79 Nacionalista 16.10 42 +18 NPC 14.31 37 −5 NUP 9.51 25 +2 Liberal 5.73 18 −97 Lakas 5.11 12 +8 PFP 2.38 5 +5 HNP 1.61 3 +3 Aksyon 0.98 1 0 PMP 0.98 1 +1 Bukidnon Paglaum 0.83 2 +1 LDP 0.62 2 0 HTL 0.49 1 +1 PPPL 0.46 2 +2 Bileg 0.39 1 +1 PRP 0.34 1 +1 Asenso Abrenio 0.29 1 +1 Asenso Manileño 0.21 2 0 CDP 0.20 1 +1 Navoteño 0.20 1 +1 KABAKA 0.16 1 0 Independent 4.97 2 −2 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Speaker before Speaker after PDP–Laban Alan Peter Cayetano Nacionalista

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The 2019 Philippine general election was conducted on May 13, 2019. A midterm election, those elected therein will take office on June 30, 2019, midway through the term of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The following positions were contested:

• 12 seats in the Senate of the Philippines
• All seats in the House of Representatives of the Philippines
• All governors, vice governors and regular members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Councils) in the provinces of the Philippines
• All mayors, vice mayors and regular members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (City Councils) or Sangguniang Bayan (Municipal Councils) in the cities or municipalities of the Philippines

Under the Local Government Code and the 1987 constitution, all terms start on June 30, 2019, and end on June 30, 2022, except for elected senators, whose terms shall end on June 30, 2025. The Commission on Elections administered the election.

Preparation

Date of the election

The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines states that unless otherwise provided by law, the election of members of Congress is on every second Monday of May.^[1] According to Republic Act No. 7166, election for national, provincial, city and municipal elections are on the second Monday of May, since 1992, and every three years thereafter, with the president and vice president being elected in six-year intervals.^[2] It has been three years since the last general election of 2016, and with no law canceling the election, this meant that the election was held on Monday, May 13, 2019.

The commission confirmed the day of the election day of May 13 when it released the calendar for the election. The important days are:^[3]

• Filing of candidacies and nominations for party-list representatives: October 11 to 12, and October 15 to 17, 2018
• Campaign period
  • For Senate and party-list elections: February 12 to May 11, 2019
  • For district congressional and local elections: March 29 to May 11, 2019
• Substitution of candidates: November 30 to 12:00 p.m. of May 13, 2019
• Election silence: April 18 to 19 and May 12 to 13, 2019
• Election day: May 13, 2019
• Deadline of filing of expenses: June 12, 2019

Automated election system

The Philippines adopted an automated election system (AES) for the 2019 elections. The COMELEC announced in December 2018 that the Philippine AES passed the review conducted by international systems and software testing firm, Pro V&V, in Alabama, USA.^[4]

The Commission had a 'trusted build' program wherein the program to be used in the midterms in 2019 is built using the reviewed components. Commissioner Marlon Casquejo on December 17, 2018 turned over the executable file of the Election Management System (EMS) Trusted Build for the May 13, 2019 National and Local Elections (NLE) to the Commission en banc. The file will be escrowed to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.^[5]

The EMS compiled the number and profile of registered voters, their geographic locations and polling precinct information, and these were used in designing the official ballots.

Equipment

The Commission on Elections made a decision on February 1, 2018 to purchase vote-counting machines (VCM), which were used in the 2016 presidential election for a price of 2.122 billion pesos for the 2019 mid-term elections.^[6]

Commission on Elections membership

On October 17, 2017, the House of Representatives impeached Commission on Elections Chairman Andres D. Bautista due to allegations of manipulation of the 2016 vice presidential election in favor of Leni Robredo.^[7] Hours earlier, Bautista announced his resignation effective December 31.^[8] President Duterte accepted Bautista's resignation effective immediately, on October 23.^[9] Duterte then appointed Sheriff Abas as new chairman, in November 2017.^[10]

The Commission on Appointments confirmed Duterte's appointment of Abas as chairman in May 2018. Abas was expected to head the commission on the 2019 elections. At the confirmation hearing, Abas defended the commission's purchase of the vote-counting machines, saying that they were purchased at one-third of the cost.^[11] The commission later confirmed Duterte's appointment of Socorro Inting as commissioner later that month.^[12] Duterte also appointed Marlon S. Casquejo as commissioner on June and Undersecretary of Justice Antonio Kho as commissioner on July, completing the commission's seven seats.^[13]

Proposed cancellation

Due to the drive to change the constitution to make the Philippines a federation, Speaker of the House of Representatives Pantaleon Alvarez said in January 2018 that the cancellation of the 2019 elections was possible, as a transition government would be needed. Later, Duterte ruled out the cancellation the election.^[14]

By July, after the consultative committee submitted their draft constitution to Duterte and Congress, Alvarez proposed to cancel the 2019 elections so that Congress could concentrate on revising the constitution.^[15] Senate President Tito Sotto said that this was possible by Congress passing a law for the cancellation of the election.^[16] Members of the consultative committee, on the other hand, preferred holding the election. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said that "I suggest elections will continue (because people suspect that) we are proposing federalism so that the elections can be postponed. It is not true, not at all."^[17]

Later that month, Senator Panfilo Lacson said that most senators, including those who were running for reelection, would have blocked any moves by the lower house to cancel the election. This came as Alvarez switched his preferred mode of amending the constitution via a People's Initiative. Senator Franklin Drilon earlier stated that the minority bloc would have sued if Alvarez's plan of cancelling the election pushed through.^[18]

With the ouster of Alvarez by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as speaker in July 2018, the latter said that she preferred the elections pushing through.^[19]

Results

Congress

The 18th Congress of the Philippines comprises the winners of this election, together with the winning candidates in the 2016 Senate election.

Senate

Twelve seats in the Senate, or those seats that were first disputed in 1995, and were last up in 2013, were up for election.

The Hugpong ng Pagbabago, the alliance backed by Davao City mayor and presidential daughter Sara Duterte won nine of the seats up. The primary opposition coalition, Otso Diretso, failed to win any seats. Candidates from neither alliance won the other three seats.

House of Representatives

All seats in the House of Representatives were up for election.

Parties associated with the current administration, such as

Party-list election

Main article:

Partido ng Manggagawa28,3510.10New00Movement for Economic Transformation and Righteous Opportunities28,2610.10−0.1900One Advocacy for Health Progress and Opportunity26,5640.10−0.0700Ang Tao Muna at Bayan25,9460.09+0.0000Alliance of Volunteer Educators25,0250.09−0.4000Awareness of Keepers of the Environment24,7800.09+0.0000One Unified Transport Alliance of the Philippines-Bicol Region22,9480.08New00One Philippines21,9740.08New00Partido Sandugo19,6490.07New00Pinagbuklod na Filipino para sa Bayan18,2970.07New00Federation of International Cable TV and Telecommunications Association of the Philippines16,0380.06−0.0500Tribal Communities Association of the Philippines15,7310.06−0.1000Tinderong Pinoy Party14,5800.05−0.0900Pilipinas para sa Pinoy13,8480.05New00Kaisahan ng mga Maliliit na Magsasaka12,0610.04−0.0900Noble Advancement of Marvelous People of the Philippines11,7510.04New00Filipino Family Party10,5890.04New00Alliance of Public Transport Organization8,8830.03New00Kamais Pilipinas (Kapatirang Magmamais ng Pilipinas)7,5710.03New00Sandigan ng mga Manggagawa sa Konstruksyon6,3440.02New00Total27,884,790100.00–61+2Valid votes27,884,79058.96−13.02Invalid/blank votes19,411,65241.04+13.02Total votes47,296,442––Registered voters/turnout63,643,26374.31−6.39Source: COMELEC

Local

Main article: 2019 Philippine local elections

All totals as of the first quarter of 2018:^[20]

• All 81 provincial governors and vice governors, and all regular members of all of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan were up for election.
• All 145 city mayors and vice mayors, and all regular members of all of the Sangguniang Panlungsod were up for election.
• All 1,489 municipal mayors and vice mayors, and all regular members of all of the Sangguniang Bayan were up for election.

The ex officio members of the local legislatures, who have been elected after the

December 2022

.

Changes are as compared to the 2016 local elections.

Provincial-level

See also: 2019 Philippine gubernatorial elections

Party		Governor		Vice governor		Board members
		Total	+/−	Total	+/−	Boards outright controlled	Seats	+/−
	PDP–Laban	41 / 81	+41	32 / 81	+30	22 / 81	263 / 1,023	+257
	Nacionalista	8 / 81	−1	11 / 81	+2	7 / 81	116 / 1,023	+52
	NUP	8 / 81	−1	10 / 81	+3	4 / 81	67 / 1,023	−2
	NPC	7 / 81	−2	6 / 81	−4	2 / 81	90 / 1,023	−17
	Liberal	2 / 81	−37	5 / 81	−34	2 / 81	54 / 1,023	−280
	Lakas	2 / 81	+2	2 / 81	0	1 / 81	18 / 1,023	+14
	UNA	1 / 81	−2	3 / 81	−2	0 / 81	9 / 1,023	−38
	LDP	0 / 81	0	0 / 81	0	0 / 81	4 / 1,023	+4
	Other parties	9 / 81	+3	11 / 81	+9	7 / 81	116 / 1,023	+49
	Independent	3 / 81	−2	0 / 81	−6	—	43 / 1,023	−22
	Ex officio members	—					243 / 1,023	0
Totals		81	0	81	0	81	1,023	+4

City- and municipal-level

Party		Mayor		Vice mayor		Councilors
		Total	+/−	Total	+/−	Seats	+/−
	PDP–Laban	611 / 1,634	+41	547 / 1,634	+30	4,183 / 16,812	+257
	Nacionalista	252 / 1,634	−1	244 / 1,634	+2	2,009 / 16,812	+52
	NPC	172 / 1,634	−2	184 / 1,634	−4	1,413 / 16,812	−17
	NUP	125 / 1,634	−1	151 / 1,634	+3	990 / 16,812	−2
	Lakas	67 / 1,634	+2	66 / 1,634	0	514 / 16,812	+14
	Liberal	47 / 1,634	−37	62 / 1,634	−34	385 / 16,812	−280
	UNA	19 / 1,634	−2	20 / 1,634	−2	235 / 16,812	−38
	LDP	11 / 1,634	0	9 / 1,634	0	91 / 16,812	+4
	Aksyon	2 / 1,634	0	2 / 1,634	0	19 / 16,812	0
	Other parties	259 / 1,634	+3	232 / 1,634	+9	1,971 / 16,812	+49
	Independent	69 / 1,634	−2	117 / 1,634	−6	1,636 / 16,812	−22
	Ex officio members	—				3,268 / 16,812	0
Totals		1,634	0	1,634	0	16,812	+4

Glitches

On May 13, the number of malfunctioned vote counting machines (VCMs) tripled compared to the 2016 election.^[21] According to COMELEC spokesperson James Jimenez, 400–600 out of 85,000 VCMs across the country (representing 0.7%) encountered glitches. The machines were from the 2016 elections, and the COMELEC admitted that it could be because the machines are not new.^[21]

Faulty SD cards were also reported to be the cause of malfunction. The substandard ballot forms as well as markers that bleed ink are other causes of malfunction and anomalies. The COMELEC will probe the suppliers: Triplex Enterprises Incorporated for the ballot paper and marking pens and S1 Technologies Incorporated and Silicon Valley Computer Group joint venture for the SD cards.^[22]

Jimenez, however, said that the problems experienced were still within range of expected range of expectation, as problematic machines account for only less than 1 percent of total machines used.^[23]

There are reports of running out of ballots in a polling precinct in Alburquerque, Bohol; affected voters have waited for two hours before the extra ballots was delivered at 3pm.^[24] At around 10, the COMELEC has experienced problems with the transparency server where the unofficial tally has been stuck for hours, with only 0.38% of polling precincts have managed to transmit the results.^[25][26] But experts agree that the glitches don't necessarily mean cheating took place.^[27] The transmission happened, according to PPCRV Chairperson Myla Villanueva. In an interview, Villanueva said that 'results were receiver by transparency server continuously, despite media temporarily not being able to see the results.' She added that 'most importantly, the ERs match with transmitted results.' ^[28]

Despite the glitches, the random manual audits (RMA) conducted days after the elections show that the 2019 midterms yielded the highest rate of accuracy among the previous automated elections. Based on the 2019 RMA, the accuracy rate for the senatorial votes was at 99.9971 percent; for members of the House 99.9946 percent; and 99.9941 percent for mayor.^[29]

The COMELEC recorded at least 20 people have been killed in an election-related incidents and 43 incidents during the course of election campaign as of May 13,

Panglima Estino, Sulu where six have been injured.^[32]

Reaction

In a Pulse Asia opinion poll dated June 24–30, 2019, 82% of those surveyed found the election to be believable while 82% said the release of the results were fast. Meanwhile, 10% of respondents found their names missing in the voters list, 4% of their registration was deactivated, 1% of the vote counting machine malfunctioned, as the issues in the election.^[33]

References

1. ^ "Article VI of the Constitution of the Philippines". COMELEC.gov.ph. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
2. ^ "Republic Act No. 7166". COMELEC.gov.ph. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
3. ^ Gagalac, Ron (October 3, 2018). "Comelec sets calendar for 2019 polls". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
4. ^ Patinio, Ferdinand. "'Trusted build' program for 2019 automated polls set Dec. 14". PNA. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
5. ^ Patinio, Ferdinand. "Casquejo presents 'trusted build' file for 2019 polls to Comelec". PNA. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
6. GMA News
   . Retrieved February 1, 2018.
7. ^ Morallo, Audrey (October 11, 2017). "House votes to impeach Comelec Chairman Bautista". The Philippine Star. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
8. ^ Ager, Malia; Santos, Tina (October 11, 2017). "Comelec chair Andres Bautista resigns". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
9. ^ "BREAKING: Comelec Chair Bautista's resignation effective immediately – Malacañang". Rappler. October 23, 2017. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
10. ^ Ranada, Pia. "Sheriff Abas is new Comelec chairman". Rappler. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
11. ^ Sy, Marvin (May 24, 2018). "Comelec chief Sheriff Abas gets Commission on Appointments nod". philstar.com. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
12. ^ Esmaquel, Paterno II (May 30, 2018). "CA confirms Comelec Commissioner Socorro Inting". Rappler. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
13. ^ Esguerra, Anthony Q. (July 16, 2018). "Kho takes oath as new Comelec Commissioner". INQUIRER.net. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
14. ^ Colcol, Erwin (January 3, 2018). "No elections in 2019 possible, says Alvarez". GMA News Online. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
15. ^ Porcalla, Delon (July 12, 2018). "Speaker Alvarez proposes no-elections in 2019 for federalism". The Philippine Star. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
16. ^ Ager, Maila (July 12, 2018). "Sotto: Congress may pass law to postpone 2019 polls". INQUIRER.net. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
17. ^ Ramirez, Robertzon (July 14, 2018). "Concom to Congress: Stop talking 'no-elections' in 2019". The Philippine Star. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
18. ^ Ager, Maila (July 18, 2018). "Lacson: Senators to fight 'tooth and nail' against 'No-el' moves". INQUIRER.net. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
19. ^ Cepeda, Mara (July 27, 2018). "Arroyo opposes proposal to scrap 2019 elections". Rappler. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
20. ^ "Philippine Statistics Authority | Republic of the Philippines". nap.psa.gov.ph. Archived from the original on April 13, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
21. ^ ^{a b} "Comelec admits vote counting machine issues tripled in 2019 polls". ABS-CBN News.
22. ^ "COMELEC to probe suppliers of defective markers, SD cards". Rappler.
23. ^ "Problem on VCMs within Comelec's 'range of expectations'". Manila Bulletin.
24. ^ "Bohol precinct runs out of ballots". Philippine Daily Inquirer.
25. ^ "Comelec server problem delays unofficial tallies". ABS-CBN News.
26. ^ "Comelec: Slow unofficial count due to 'technical issue'". Rappler.
27. ^ "Transmission glitches don't necessarily mean electoral fraud". Rappler.
28. ^ "For the record: Myla Villanueva". GMA News.
29. ^ "2019 RMA results show highest accuracy in 4 past elections". Manila Bulletin.
30. ^ "At least 20 killed in election-related violence since December 2018". Rappler.
31. ^ "Who is Rodel Batocabe?". Rappler.
32. ^ "6 wounded in shooting near voting center in Sulu". CNN Philippines. Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
33. ^ "9 in 10 Filipinos want automated polls to continue — Pulse Asia". Philstar.