The Winner of the 2019 Midterm Elections is Actually the Opposition
It seems like the parliamentary of the streets is gaining more and more support.
At 6:24pm of May 13, 2019, I experienced something that I will never forget: when GMA Network’s election coverage unexpectedly flashed the the first batch of partial votes transmitted to the COMELEC transparency server, I felt a rush of upset, anger, and disappointment — all while having to type in the partial vote count of the Top 1–24 Senatoriables for iboto.ph’s comprehensive coverage. My friend was beside me the whole time helping me calm down while she dictated the number of votes the Magic 12 amassed. I was shaking. I was heartbroken.
Alongside heartbreak, history was forgotten in this midterm vote. It was disheartening to see the number of votes that criminals such as Imee Marcos compared to the number of votes garnered by opposition candidate Neri Colmenares who was tortured and imprisoned by the Philippine Constabulary when he was eighteen years old during the Marcos dictatorship; Chel Diokno’s father late Senator Ka Pepe Diokno was also imprisoned during the Marcos regime. Even recent history is seemingly forgotten as Bato dela Rosa, one of the key proponents of Oplan Tokhang, is seen to remain victorious in the Senatorial race. This is amidst flak on the infamous Tokhang, a spree of anti-poor extrajudicial killings aimed to solve the country’s “drug problem” that has killed about twenty thousand people. That’s about as much people as the number of people attending an Ateneo-La Salle game! We’re only talking about two criminals here, and we have yet to reach the tip of the iceberg.
Amidst the opposition upset during this election with a 9 Hugpong ng Pagbabago-3 Independent ratio as of the iboto.ph May 14 05:45PHT update, the public has questioned two things: its system and its society.
Going back to the first media reveal of the top 1–24 Senatoriables, iboto.ph’s and even my own personal timeline was filled with questions about the state of our nation. This would continue on later in the night as the public was impatient due to glitches in the COMELEC servers causing a near eight hour delay in the transparency server updates alongside public speculation and a righful spot in the trending topic list for the hashtag #HalalanDayaan on Twitter. More questions — as they should have — started rolling out as an transparency server update in the wee hours of the morning skyrocketed from 0.38% percent of votes to 91% of the votes.
Why is there no opposition win? Why did the people vote for these trapos? How did this happen? Was there electoral fraud involved? Can they file Failure of Elections? How can we be sure that this is the real vote count? Why was Namfrel not accredited for manual audit? Why is our society like this?
This might be the election to fuel the flame.
Everyone — even friends and family that did not comment a lot on politics— was confused and skeptical regarding the vote count. The confusion lead to anger and of course, more question. One vital question was common to everyone who felt disheartened, cheated, angered in this election: What can I do?
The youth, specifically, especially underage people like me who cannot vote yet looked for answers: we found it in the welcome arms of National Democratic Mass Organisations (NDMOs) such as the Kabataan Partylist and the Gabriela, who both ran for seats in the House of Representatives. My generation, alongside others, asked how we could make an impact despite having no new representation in the Magic 12; we are willing to do anything in order to protect our country.
These left-leaning organisations will have to learn a lot of new faces after a rise in interest in membership, and that is a good sign. The youth are getting interested in mobilising against systematic failures which have worked in favor of the corrupt and criminal new members of the Senate. The youth show solidarity in wanting to learn more about why this semi-colonial and semi-feudal nation continues to experience its downfall. The youth want to fight for the rights of their people: the Filipino farmers, workers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, LGBTQ+. The youth — and it is safe to say majority of Filipinos — want to amplify their voices so those in power feel the power of the masses. The masses want to reclaim their voices, and it is proper timing to do so; and so far, the reclamation has begun.
We can expect more voices in the left-leaning NDMOs as they continue to clamor and make an impact on the landscape of Philippine politics in the upcoming years. These organisations work quick: we saw it in the quick mobilisations on election night in front of the PICC where the COMELEC is canvasing votes and in nationwide protests a day after. More support for leftist thinking and ideology can also be expected.
We should also expect a stronger demand for the Liberal Party, the proponent of the popular opposition party of this year’s election Otso Diretso, to unite with left-leaning parties such as the Makabayan bloc. With the goal of a more united and stronger opposition in gearing up for the 2022 National Elections, the people will surely voice out a need for a more legitimate and stronger opposition by not leaving any left-leaning organisation behind.
We won’t be seeing the opposition candidates disappear anytime either. Voices of bets like Chel Diokno, Samira Gutoc, Ka Leody de Guzman, Erin Tañada, and Neri Colmenares will surely be heard through continuous analysis and commentary of the actions of a replenished Senate, Congress, and House of Representatives. The youth’s interest and support for these candidates will surely make them memorable, and the clamor for a 2022 bid for these senators is already being amplified.
COMELEC won’t be let down easy in its mediocre job during the midterm. There will be scrutiny about the performance of this organisation, and this election will be known to the masses as a failure. Trust on the COMELEC will fall, as it should.
The results of the midterm served as a wake-up call with the masses mobilise themselves to grow bigger in order to become a strong voice. The already strong opposition force will become stronger because of the midterm letdown —come to think of it, this should be considered an opposition win. It may not look like it as no opposition candidate has won a seat in the Senate, but it seems like the parliamentary of the streets is gaining more and more support: the parliamentary that should dictate the state of our nation◘
Interested in joining a National Democratic Mass Organisation? There are a lot based on school and area! Refer to this thread.
Iboto.ph will also be staying up post-midterm as a response to the growing call for progressive organizations. You may join us here.
Suggested Reading:
Let us not call Filipino voters ‘bobo’ by Raisa Serafica
This analysis on the 2019 Elections by Herbie Docena on Facebook
