Church leaders slam violence, rigging in Philippine midterm polls

Church leaders joined poll watchdogs and activist groups in denouncing the violence, vote-buying and rigging reported during the May 12 midterm ele-ctions in the Catholic-majority Philippines. “The people have spoken, but it was not a perfect discourse. Money tainted it. Blood stained it. It was blotted by lies,” Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan wrote on social media on May 13.
Villegas, a former president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said the midterm election ”was coloured with vulgarity.” “Really and truly, no elections are perfect. We keep on hoping. We have leveled up a bit, but the mountain peak is still far from sight. Be critical so that govern-ment services can level up even more. There is so much to impro-ve on,” the archbishop added. He further said that losing or winn-ing in the elections has “lessons to teach” and urged Filipinos “not to get carried away by the glee or the grief. Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman George Erwin Garcia said the May 12 mid-term polls have been the most peaceful so far in terms of election-related violence. The poll body chief claimed at a press conference in Manila on May 12 that the 44 incidents of violence were much lower compared with the 128 incidents in 2019 and around 120 in 2020.
A day after the midterm elections, some 200 members of various groups led by poll watchdog Kontra Daya and progressive group Makabayan, protested in the capital, Manila, against alleged irregularities and voter disenfranchisement.