38 dead, ‘plots’ against Rodrigo Duterte and an accused Olympic weightlifter: what’s the truth of Philippine election chaos?
- Authorities are doing their best to play down the chaos ahead of the Philippine election. Is something deeper afoot?
- One to watch is Senate race, where Duterte-backed candidates are vying for the 12 seats he needs to scrap 1987 Constitution and change system of government
Election season in the Philippines is always a time of simmering hostility. Adding to the volatile brew this time is the return of widespread vote-buying with police reporting that some voters are being offered downpayments of 300 pesos (US$5.75) and follow up payments of 1,000 pesos to swing their ballots. Police have also reported village chiefs being promised up to half a million pesos for transporting voters to polling precincts and ensuring they vote for particular candidates.
By the last week of March, the number of hotspots had risen to 941 – including all of the southern island of Mindanao, which has 35 provinces and a voting population of at least 12.6 million, or 23 per cent of the country’s total, and will play a vital role in determining the outcome of the Senate race.
Home to a Christian majority and a Muslim minority, the island is under martial law and has seen the rapid rise of militant Islam, the growth of politicians’ private armies and the armed communist New People’s Army (NPA).
In 2016, communist rebels helped deliver votes for Duterte in key areas of the Compostela Valley province – which is in Mindanao’s Davao region, where the president was a popular mayor – and in the central Philippines’ Samar province.