MANILA, May 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Filipinos headed to the polls on Monday in a vote that is expected to strengthen President Rodrigo Duterte’s grip on power.
More than 18,000 positions are at stake, including half of the seats in the upper house Senate, which has served as a bulwark against some of Duterte’s most controversial policies.
Duterte is known internationally for his foul-mouthed tirades, but remains hugely popular among Filipinos fed up with the country’s general dysfunction and leaders who have failed to fix it.
He wants to bring back capital punishment for drug-related crimes as part of a deadly crackdown on narcotics in which thousands of suspects and drug addicts have already been killed.
His tough-on-crime platform — which also includes lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 12 — was key to his landslide election victory in 2016.
Voters crowded voting centres in the capital Manila ahead of polls opening at 6:00 am in an election where some 61 million are registered to cast ballots.
Historically, the nation’s 24 senators — who serve six-year terms — have had a reputation for being more independent-minded than the lower house.
Winning a Senate majority, something that independent national surveys indicate is well within reach, would give Duterte legislative backing for his anti-crime proposals and his plan to rewrite the constitution.
The opposition warns that could lead to the single-term limit for the presidency being lifted, allowing him to seek re-election despite his repeated statements that he would stand down at the end of his mandate.
It would also allow him to expand his contentious anti-drug crackdown by bringing back the death penalty, a pledge that the UN Human Rights Council said gave it “deep alarm”.
The Philippines outlawed capital punishment in 1987, reinstated it six years later and then abolished again in 2006.
The 74-year-old hit the campaign trail to get his supporters in the Senate, giving two-hour speeches at late-night rallies and routinely insulting their opponents — calling one a “faggot” and accusing another of working for communist guerrillas.
The results for municipal and city mayors and councils are expected within hours of polls closing at 6:00 pm Monday, with winners for the Senate and congressional seats likely to be declared from Friday.
Even if the presidential term limit is not lifted, the Duterte family looks well-placed to continue its reign.
The president’s daughter Sara — being eyed by some as the president’s potential successor in the 2022 vote — is running to keep her post as mayor in its southern bailiwick of Davao city.
Her younger brother Sebastian is seeking, unopposed, the city’s vice-mayoral seat, while Duterte’s eldest son Paolo is standing for a seat in the lower House of Representatives.
Electoral contests in the Philippines have always been bloody. Dozens, including candidates and their supporters, are killed in the fierce competition for posts, which are a source of wealth in a nation with deep poverty.
Police are on high alert to safeguard balloting as the bloody trend continued this year, with 20 killed and 24 wounded in election-related violence in the run up to the vote, according to an official count. — NNN-AGENCIES
