Filipinos begin casting ballots in presidential election

Overseas Absentee Voting for the Philippine presidential election started around the world, including in Macau, on Sunday.
According to the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs, it is the first time in the history of Philippine voting that one million overseas registered voters for an election was surpassed. Macau alone has 5,000 such individuals.
Philippine consul general Lilybeth Deapera hopes that all of the registered voters will exercise their right of suffrage between now and May 9.
“We’re hoping that 100 percent of the over 5,000 [registered voters] will vote because what they [the Philippine consulate] experienced last time is that they don’t really make an effort to come and vote even when the voting is open for a month.”
Some voters said the manual voting process was “simple and easy” while some expressed the desire that a vote counting machine could be used to avoid fraud. However such a machine will only be used if over 10,000 individuals register as electors in any one region.
Meanwhile the consul general admits there are problems regarding “registered voters” whose names have not appeared on the list of registered voters issued by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), explaining to the Times that they report to COMELEC every registration to vote.
Volunteers handing election leaflets outside the AIA building (where the consulate is located) said they are campaigning for the candidate who they think is against corruption, as The Philippines is renown for its high levels of corruption.
Airysh Acupan, one of the volunteers, admits that they fear electoral fraud will take place within the consulate.
“We sometimes doubt whether our votes are being accounted for. Even those people that we give fliers to would have doubts but we’ll leave it up to God,” Acupan explains.
However Ms Deapera said that the special board of electoral inspectors underwent training to supervise the polling station, adding that daily reports are shown to COMELEC.
Moreover, the consulate has warned the campaigners that they have to be at least 30 meters away from the polling station, as instructed by the commission. Deapera said they strongly prohibit voters campaigning for a candidate through t-shirts with a name or picture of the candidate and reminded the public that the use of a cellphone inside the polling station is an electoral offense.
Conversely, she added that even if presidential campaigns were already held, the consulate is not in control of campaigners endorsing a presidential candidate outside their office’s premises.
“We cannot stop them if they’re already outside the building […] we cannot force them to leave, it’s their right,” declared Deapera. Staff reporter

Presidential candidates, from left, Jejomar Binay, Rodrigo Duterte, Grace Poe and Mar Roxas, participate in a debate

Duterte tops recent PH presidential survey

With less than four weeks to go before Filipinos can vote for their next president, a nationwide survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations shows that Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has taken back the lead as the favored candidate.
The survey, conducted from March 30 to April 2, reveals that 27 percent of respondents say they would vote for the combative Davao mayor if polls had been held at that time.
Meanwhile, Senator Grace Poe, the candidate who allegedly received “political donations” from one of Macau’s biggest junket operators, Suncity group, was a close second with 23 percent.
According to the pollster, Vice-President ‘JoJo’ Jejomar Binay came in third with 20 percent, former Interior Secretary Mar ‘Daang Matuwid (Righteous Path)’ Roxas, the ruling party’s standard bearer, acquired 18 percent; while 3 percent of respondents chose Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
Except for Duterte and Poe, all other candidates saw their numbers rise relative to the previous survey. Duterte had topped a survey by the same polling firm in December 2015.
The vice presidential survey also saw Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, the running mate of presidential candidate Santiago, being supported by more than a quarter (26 percent) of total respondents.