Enough with the #DayaangMatuwid nonsense
Filipinos were astounded by the speed by which we were able to know the results of the elections at the national and local levels. The landslide victory of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in the presidential race as well as the names of the winning senatorial candidates was determined just hours after polls closed. This is unthinkable just a few election cycles ago, when we had to wait for several days or weeks before we can know who the winners are.
Nevertheless, there is now a raging controversy centering on the closely fought vice presidential race between Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo and Senator Bongbong Marcos. Marcos from the time the polls closed, with his lead reaching as much as a million at one point. However, that changed late Monday evening when Robredo quickly closed the gap. By Tuesday afternoon, she is already ahead by 185,000 votes according to the latest unofficial tally with only 8% of election results waiting to be tallied.
Because of the apparent change in fortunes of the two candidates, Marcos supporters are now making allegations of cheating on social media, where they are using the hashtag #DayaangMatuwid. Unless there are compelling evidences of widespread election irregularities surface, it is wrong for people to impugn the conduct of the entire democratic process just because their preferred candidate did not win.
It can be said that Marcos led for much of yesterday simply because the regions where he performed stronger than Robredo reported first and that she was able to overtake him because provinces where she received huge number of votes reported late. It’s not necessarily because of cheating.
— GMA Integrated News (@gmanews) May 10, 2016
PS: The closest VP race in Philippine history happened in 1965 when Nacionalista Party’s Fernando Lopez defeated Liberal Party’s Gerardo Roxas by 26,724 votes, 3,531,550 to 3,504,826.
Lopez is the running-mate of Ferdinand Marcos while Roxas ran under Diosdado Macapagal. Roxas filed a protest against Lopez before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal but he lost.
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