Sinking in electoral fraud

📷: Courtesy of Kalikasan | FB

The country has been tagged as second only to India in digital fraud, registering 13.4% in 2024, more than double the global average of 5.4%, according to TransUnion, an information solutions provider. Worse, the Philippine rate is rising and has exceeded the fraud rate for five consecutive years. TransUnion claims 74% of Filipinos were targeted for scams, and 34% lost money, with the average loss at P44,700.

Yet, what should worry Filipinos more is the worst form of fraud—electoral scam—that has worsened since 2022, nurtured by social media, perpetrated by agents of politicians working within the Comelec, disseminated through a strange IP address and helped immensely by the dump of 20-million ballot results at 8:12 p.m. on May 8, 2022. Imee Marcos feared that her brother was being cheated out of victory but clammed up a second later. Marcos Jr. and Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio profited from the computerized scam.

With the proliferation of troll armies and malicious use of international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) catchers that simulate cell sites and fake base stations that can technically intrude into Comelec servers, the system to cheat has been institutionalized. It has been abetted by the sudden change in the Comelec software, from “version 3.4” to “version 3.5” without as much as an explanation to all political parties, partylists and election watchdogs about what happened to the source code, which apparently has been changed, with Comelec now tying itself in knots trying to say nothing changed in the source code that could have padded the votes of Bong Go and Ronald de la Rosa, as well as Rodante Marcoleta. What should terrify citizens is that from the 20-million votes for Team Unity in 2022, the figure slid to about 5-million this year.

Curiously, that 5-million figure tallies with what Rappler reported were votes from duplicated precincts that Comelec eventually “fixed” but suspicions are rife that results had been padded digitally earlier to be consistent with the desired results. Indeed, digital fraud is the principal component of the cheating scheme and the operations of state agencies comprised the hard aspects of the grand plan to subvert the will of the electorate by engaging in the worst form of election meddling by the military, police and the designated operator against the Makabayan Coalition, Bayan Muna and other partylists—the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC)—that national security adviser Eduardo Ano and his subordinate Jonathan Malaya manage.

Ano wrote in clear terms that he will deliver a “final blow” against legal partylists and progressive coalitions in his hit piece “An Insurgency-Free Philippines is on the Horizon” dated May 4, 2025. The promise came barely 12 days before the election and long after his oa peratives had launched “vote denial” operations nationwide, as reports from Bayan Muna, Tanggol Magsasakand the Makabayan Coalition proved.  His targets are organizations (NGOs) receiving foreign grants, which will be slapped with trumped-up charges for financing terrorism and campaigners for partylists and the Makabayan Coalition. Ano is the principal implementor of the plot hatched by the Duterte regime to eliminate Bayan Muna and the recently-organized Makabayan Coalition through various tactics, like preventing progressive campaigners from many areas, arresting partylist workers, imposing a “persona non grata” tag on progressives and scaring voters in a repeat of the “aswang” tactics implemented by the CIA in the 1950s.

Tanggol Magsasaka reported that between February 11 and May 10, it documented at least 25 cases of human rights violations (HRVs) against peasants, peasant leaders, and rural advocates—underscoring the escalating violence and impunity that continue to plague our countryside. “This election season saw one farmer killed, five victims of enforced disappearance, two illegal arrests, and multiple cases of red-tagging and intimidation. Campaigners, candidates, and unorganized rural poor alike bore the brunt of these violations. Far from being isolated incidents, they reflect a deliberate and systematic effort to silence dissent, derail progressive electoral campaigns, and suppress peasant participation in political processes,” it added.

Despite Comelec Resolution No. 11116, which explicitly classifies red- and terror-tagging as electoral offenses, state-backed forces escalated these attacks. NTF-ELCAC spearheaded a vicious campaign of vilification against progressive candidates under the Makabayan Coalition, particularly peasant leader and senatorial candidate Danilo Ramos, who chairs the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP.) Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia hardly lifted a finger to stop the atrocious behavior of Ano and his untouchables. Tanggol Magsasaka stressed: “In a shameless display of state partisanship, the NTF-ELCAC used government media platforms and military resources to broadcast smear campaigns. Armed Forces radio stations and social media pages became vehicles for demonizing Ramos and other Makabayan senatorial aspirants. Ramos, who has faced harassment since early 2024, was once again tagged as a ‘terrorist’ by military assets.” On May 10, the last day of the campaign, state agents installed red-tagging caskets in public spaces across Quezon City, Tarlac, Bulacan, and Albay. Painted with fake blood and bearing “DO NOT VOTE” signs targeting Makabayan party-lists, these grotesque props were clearly meant to intimidate and instill fear.

Peasant organizers were harassed, surveilled, and threatened. In Cebu, KMP officers Susan Alcos and Dominador Malicay received a death threat in the form of a miniature casket bearing their photos. In La Union, AMMLU Vice President Lourdes Doctolero was repeatedly coerced by soldiers to “surrender.” Military units also obstructed campaign sorties. In Camarines Sur, soldiers attempted to block Danilo Ramos and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bicol (KMB) volunteers from entering Barangay Matakla. In Mindoro, Makabayan senatorial aspirants were barred from conducting community visits in Pola by unidentified men invoking dubious barangay “resolutions.” Such incidents directly contravene Comelec’s fair campaigning guidelines and illustrate how militarization and electoral repression now go hand-in- hand. This also brings to mind how the Roxas government and other collaborators with Japan, under orders from the US, barred seven winning Democratic Alliance (DA) congressional candidates from assuming their posts as they would oppose the grant of parity rights for Americans. Philippine elections have never been fair. (DIEGO MORRA)