The Communist Party of the Philippines called on the Filipino people on 13 May to “reject and resist the Marcos II illegitimate regime”, declaring that the 9 May Presidential elections “were manipulated to make it appear that Marcos won a ‘landslide’ victory.” The tandem of Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and Sara Duterte-Carpio, according to the CPP, stole the 9 May national and local elections, “by rigging the Commission on Elections’ automated election system, vote-buying, armed coercion, systematic disinformation, mind manipulation, political deceit and historical distortion.”
The Party added, “The campaign was run by big-ticket PR firms running media campaigns and social media troll farms, funded by Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth and Duterte’s state funds, and financial contributions from big business tycoons, big landlords, political dynasties and warlords. Under the pretext of counterinsurgency, military and police units actively campaigned for Marcos and Duterte... In classic Hitlerite fashion, the lie of the Marcos ‘landslide victory’ was deliberately made so colossal to make people think it could not be such a gross distortion of the truth.”
The COMELEC’s partial and unofficial count on 13 May indicated that Marcos, Jr. garnered 31.1 million votes while closest rival, outgoing Vice President Maria Leonor Gerona Robredo received 14.8 million votes. The tally represented 98.35% of the total votes cast. As of 13 May, all rival Presidential candidates, including Ms. Robredo, have already conceded defeat.
Thousands of Filipinos, however, have been protesting since 10 May against electoral fraud and rejecting the COMELEC count. In Metro Manila, thousands have been trooping to the national canvassing center. Similar protest actions have been taking place in other major cities across the country. On 13 May, several groups called for a Black Friday Protest.
Election watchdog Kontra Daya tagged the just-concluded elections as “the worst in history” due to the unremitting spread of disinformation during the campaign and the numerous election irregularities.
Kontra Daya said up to 1.1 million votes were lost due to the malfunctioning of nearly 2,000 vote counting machines. They received 577 reports of VCM malfunctions, 152 reports of illegal campaigning, 109 reports of vote buying and 55 reports of harassment and intimidation on 9 May.
Numerous incidents of vote-buying and intimidations were also reported by opposition political parties and other election watchdogs across the country. The COMELEC reported the malfunction of 1,800 VCMs on 9 May.
In their call to reject the “illegitimate regime”, the CPP stressed, “The Marcos-Duterte clique represents the worst of the tyrants, fascists and corrupt bureaucrat capitalists… Marcos Junior is an unrepentant beneficiary and defender of the 14-year Marcos fascist dictatorship. He combines with Sara Duterte, a power-hungry authoritarian who ruled Davao City with military and police power.”
The CPP warned that the Marcos-Duterte regime will be “a continuation of the past six years of tyrannical rule and puppetry to foreign imperialist powers, and a return to the Marcosian-levels of corruption and plunder.”