Philippines Elections

In a PTV News report, a Philippine digital strategy firm cites InAsia blog piece, “Social Media: A Game Changer in Philippines Elections,” written by former deputy country representative Maria Isabel T. Buenaobra. As the Philippine 2019 mid-term elections draw near, the analytics firm, David and Golyat, has advised social media users and the g… Read more

The Philippines will serve as ASEAN Chair in 2017, at which time ASEAN will mark its 50th anniversary. Having successfully served as host of APEC in 2015, the country has demonstrated that facilitating massive, significant international events is well within its capability—thus observers’ attention can focus on substance instead of administrative d… Read more

By August, 1.5 million students across the Philippines attended 11th grade for the first time, thanks to the newly established senior high school (SHS), a cornerstone of the country’s long-running K-12 education reform efforts. The education reform debate leading up to this moment had been centered on whether or not to defer implementation of the K… Read more

On June 30, just as Noynoy Aquino officially ended his six-year presidency and incoming president Rodrigo Duterte took the reins, the Philippines welcomed the announcement that it had reached Tier 1 on the U.S. State Department’s Global Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, the first Southeast Asian country to achieve the report’s highest… Read more

In the lead-up to May 9 Philippine elections, anxiety mounted over how the decades-long Bangsamoro peace process to resolve the protracted conflict in Mindanao would continue – if at all – under new leadership. Now, as President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, who will be sworn into office on June 30, sets about naming his new cabinet, peace advocates are w… Read more

The May 9 Philippine election not only set a new record for voter turnout, it also marked the first time that Republic Act 10366 – which mandates that polling stations be fully accessible for people with disabilities (PWDs) – was implemented in full. In his speech during the proclamation of senators-elect, the Philippine Commission on Elections (CO… Read more

On May 9, a record-breaking 81.6 percent of Filipino voters went to the polls to elect a new president. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who ran a tough-talking, polarizing campaign that focused on criminality and promised to instill law and order, won with over 38 percent of the votes. On May 9, a record-breaking 81.6 percent of Filipino voters w… Read more

In 2010, the Philippines conducted its first-ever automated poll, and I wrote that “elections had changed, but politics didn’t.” This year for a second time, a general election, including the presidency, was automated. Again we had concessions from presidential candidates the day after the polls instead of having to wait weeks for a manual count. T… Read more

In the Philippines, violence has always been an issue of great concern come election time, and May 9 was no exception, especially in Lanao del Sur, one of the five provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao where the risk of violence is compounded by the presence of private armed groups, local conflicts, and loose firearms. At the bullet… Read more

“No administration can afford to ignore the costs of conflict in Mindanao – not the human costs of conflict, the costs of development delayed or foregone, the budgetary and security costs of conflict, nor the risk of worsening a climate conducive to the spread of violent extremism.” This was the latest assessment of the Third Party Monitoring Team… Read more

Less than two weeks before May 9 presidential elections in the Philippines, it is still anyone’s ballgame and no one knows who will emerge as the frontrunner. With such a tightly contested race, it is bound to be a “last two minutes” kind of game, with each candidate scrambling to make the winning shot. How exactly will the candidates swing the vot… Read more

March came in with a bang. In this month of International Women’s Day, two Filipino women stand out: Senator Grace Poe and Congresswoman Leni Robredo. Both are running for the two highest elective posts in the May 9 elections in the Philippines – Poe for president, Robredo for vice president. Both were thrust into the political limelight after the death of their loved ones: Senator Grace Poe lost her father, and one of the Philippines’ most famous movie stars turned presidential candidate in the 2004 elections; and Congresswoman Leni Robredo…

Thirty years ago, on Feb. 22, 1986, then Jaime Cardinal Sin made an urgent call on church-owned Radio Veritas for Filipinos to take to the streets and support the revolt against President Ferdinand E. Marcos. For most Filipinos, Jaime Cardinal Sin’s message was what started the People Power Revolution, with hundreds of thousands of supporters…

Formal campaigning officially began last week for the May 9 general elections in the Philippines, with much flurry of advertisements and activities as candidates scrambled for last-minute publicity before campaign spending limits took effect. The informal campaign had already been going on for months with the list of five formal candidates…

After a period of relative stability (at least by Philippine standards), 2016 is extremely hard to assess. Turns out, as Yogi Berra famously said, “it’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” To begin with, the run-up to the May 2016 general elections is in full-swing…

Season’s Greetings! On behalf of In Asia’s editorial board and bloggers, we thank you for your engagement and continued readership throughout the year. This week we feature a countdown of the year’s most-read pieces: our top 10 blog posts on some of the most pressing events and issues in Asia throughout 2015. We return on January 6 with the first issue of 2016.

From October 12-16, thousands trooped to national and local Commission on Elections (COMELEC) offices across the Philippines to file certificates of candidacy for the May 2016 elections. The wannabes came in all shapes and sizes, some in attire portraying revolutionaries…

This week, tens of thousands of aspiring candidates – from president and vice president, through senators and members of Congress, to governors, mayors, and local councilors – will file for candidacy in May 2016 general elections in the Philippines.