National, provincial, and local elections in the country
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The 2022 Philippine general election took place on May 9, 2022, for the executive and legislative branches of government at every level – national, provincial, and local – except for the barangay officials.
At the top of the ballot is the election for the successors to President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Leni Robredo. There were also elections for:
The first election of the Bangsamoro Parliament was scheduled to be held on the same date, but was rescheduled to 2025.
This is the first election in Davao de Oro under that name, as it was renamed from Compostela Valley in December 2019 after a successful plebiscite.
Preparation.
Commission on Elections membership.
In September 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte appointed lawyer Michael Peloton as commissioner, filling in for the seat vacated by Luie Tito Guia's retirement. As this was a regular appointment as opposed to an ad interim one made when Congress is in recess, Peloton had to be confirmed by the Commission on Appointments before he could take office. In November, Duterte appointed Davao del Norte election supervisor Aimee Ferolino Ampoloquio to the seat vacated by Al Parreño.
By October 2021, there were reports that Duterte would appoint Melvin Matibag, the secretary-general of the PDP–Laban faction preferred by the former, as chairman. Matibag denied he knew about talks of him being appointed as chairman. Several weeks later, Duterte appointed Rey Bulay, chief prosecutor of Manila, as commissioner, with a term ending in 2027, replacing Peloton, who was rejected by the Commission on Appointments. Bulay was accepted by the Commission on Appointments on December 1.
Chairman Sheriff Abas and commissioners Rowena Guanzon and Antonio Kho Jr. retired on February 2, 2022. Over a month later, acting presidential spokesperson Martin Andanar announced the appointments of Saidamen Balt Pangarungan as chairman, and George Erwin Garcia and Aimee Neri as commissioners. Garcia, who lists presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos as a previous client, promised to inhibit (i.e., recuse) himself from cases involving his former clients, including Marcos.
Voter registration.
Voter registration began on January 20, 2020, and was scheduled to end on September 30, 2021. The commission expects 4.3 million eligible voters to register. Registration was suspended in some areas in Cavite, Laguna and Batangas due to the Taal Volcano eruption, and in Makilala, Cotabato due to an earthquake. However, even before registration for 2022 opened, many voters enrolled early between August 1 and September 30, 2019, ahead of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. These were initially scheduled for May 11, 2020, but were eventually postponed after the general election to December 5, 2022.
On March 10, 2020, the commission suspended voter registration in the entire country due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. By June, the commission announced its initial resumption on July 1. However, the commission suspended voter registration anew up to August 31. The commission later stated on August 15 that voter registration would resume on September 1 in areas under general community quarantine (GCQ) or modified general community quarantine (MGCQ). Areas under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) will have their registration suspended.
Registration in the province of Palawan was also suspended due to the plebiscite to divide it into three provinces on March 13, 2021. The plebiscite was originally set for May 11, 2020, but was rescheduled due to the pandemic.
In some areas, almost eight months of voter registration were lost due to lockdowns. There were calls to extend voter registration after September 30, 2021, but the commission rejected this, saying that this will delay other election-related activities. The commission instead allowed voter registration to continue in areas under MECQ starting on September 6, with longer hours and in malls.
With barely a week before the close of registration, the Senate passed a bill on second reading extending registration for another month. The House of Representatives passed a similar bill days later, also on second reading. Earlier, both chambers separately passed resolutions urging the commission to extend registration, while the Senate threatened to cut the commission's 2022 budget if registration was not extended. On the eve of the end of registration, Sheriff Abas announced that they approved extending registration from October 11 to 30 for voters in the Philippines, and from October 1 to 14 for overseas voters. On the same day, President Duterte signed into law extending registration for 30 days from when it was made effective.
After extended registration ended, the commission announced that 400,000 people registered in October. The commission tallied 65,745,529 voters in the Philippines, with Calabarzon being the region with the most voters, with 9.1 million. The total was almost 4 million more compared to 2019. By January 2022, the commission announced that they will print 67,442,714 ballots, with 1,697,202 of these for overseas absentee voting. The commission later released per-location total of registered voters, with Cebu (including independent cities associated with it) as the most vote-rich province, Quezon City as the most vote-rich city, and Calabarzon as the most vote-rich region.
In connection to the 2021 Southeast Asian Games which were held in Vietnam from May 12 to 23, 2022, the Philippine Sports Commission lobbied the commission to allow the participants to vote as local absentee voters. The commission denied the request, saying that unless a participant is a government official or employee, a member of either the Philippine National Police or Armed Forces of the Philippines who was assigned in places where one is not a voter, or media covering the games, the athlete cannot vote as a local absentee voter.
Election automation and logistics.
Camarines Sur Representative Luis Raymund Villafuerte proposed to use a hybrid electoral system in 2022, or manual counting of votes, then electronic transmission of results. This is in contrast to the automated counting and transmission system used since 2010. He cited 40 lawsuits on the current system used by the Commission on Elections as evidence to shift away from automated counting of votes. President Rodrigo Duterte suggested junking Smartmatic as the automation partner for future elections because of problems from the previous election. However, Smartmatic expressed its interest to participate in future elections. In May 2021, the commission awarded the contract to conduct automated elections, specifically the software that will be used in the voting machines, to Smartmatic.
Administration of logistics related to the election was awarded to F2 Logistics in August 2021. A former commissioner questioned the deal because of the company's association with Dennis Uy, who donated to Duterte's 2016 presidential campaign. The commission stated that the deal with F2 Logistics is legal and valid.
Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April 2020, COMELEC Commissioner Rowena Guanzon proposed voting by mail as an option in the elections, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By May 2021, Commissioner Antonio Kho Jr. said that voting hours would be extended, as the eight-hour timeframe given for previous elections could not be used any longer. As for multiple days of voting, Kho said that only a law passed by Congress would allow that to happen.
Senator Migz Zubiri, in a privileged speech, disclosed that he commissioned a Pulse Asia survey in July 2021 which said that 46% of voters will not vote if COVID-19 cases in their barangay are high on election day, with 35% willing to vote and 19% undecided. Zubiri questioned if the public would accept the results if less than a majority of voters turned out to vote.
Postponement of the elections due to COVID-19.
The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines states that unless otherwise provided by law, the election of members of Congress is held on the second Monday of May. According to Republic Act No. 7166, the election for national, provincial, city and municipal positions are held on the second Monday of May, since 1992, and every three years thereafter, with the president and vice president being elected in six-year intervals. It has been three years since the 2019 general election and six years since the 2016 presidential election, and with no law postponing the election to date, this meant that the election was scheduled to be held on May 9, 2022.
However, some congressmen and government officials suggested postponing the election due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. Sherriff Abas, the chairman of the commission, said that it had not entered their minds, that the terms are fixed, adding that they are planning on having the vote over two days. Postponement is only possible if Congress passes a law permitting such, and if it is approved by the people in a plebiscite. The commission has no part in scheduling the election outside from what is mandated by the constitution.
A group called Coalition for Life and Democracy petitioned the commission to postpone the elections due to the ongoing pandemic. The group conceded that only Congress can postpone the election, and that their petition contained different dates to hold the election: the body of the petition called for it to be rescheduled to May 2023, but the prayer in it called for May 2025. Another petition that would affect the election's date was filed on December 31 by the Cusi wing of PDP–Laban. Their petition aimed to re-open the filing of candidacies, and to suspend the printing of ballots. The commission tackled both petitions, and announced that both were unanimously dismissed on January 12.
Postponement of the Bangsamoro Parliament election.
In November 2020, the 80-person Bangsamoro Parliament passed a resolution urging Congress to extend the transition from June 2022 to 2025. If Congress agreed, no election would be held. By July 2021, Senator Migz Zubiri said that postponing the Bangsamoro election to 2025 is likely. In September, the Senate passed a bill postponing the election to 2025. A few days later, the House of Representatives passed their own version of the bill. As the two bills are different, they had to be reconciled before being sent to President Duterte for his signature. The conference committee approved the Senate version, giving the winner of the 2022 presidential election the power of appointing the next transitional parliament. Duterte then signed the bill into law, postponing the election to 2025.
Electoral system.
In the Philippines, congressional and local elections, excluding the regional and barangay levels, have been synchronized to be held on the second Monday of May every three years, starting in 1992. Presidents and vice presidents have six-year terms, so they are only elected on even-numbered years (1992, 1998, and so on). Elections where the presidency is not on the ballot are called midterm elections, and occur on odd-numbered years (1995, 2001, and so on).
Every seat up for election is voted on separately. Since 2010, general elections have been automated, with voters shading an oval next to their chosen candidate. For executive positions, elections are decided via the first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) system, where the voter has one choice. Elections to the Senate and local legislatures are held via multiple non-transferable vote, where the voter has "x" number of choices depending on the number of seats up for election (12 in the case of the Senate), and the "x" candidates with the highest number of votes win. For House elections, each voter has two votes, one via FPTP, and the other via a modified party-list proportional representation system.
Elections are organized, run, and adjudicated by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), an independent governmental body. Appeals are allowed under certain conditions to the Regional Trial Courts, the Congress, or the Supreme Court, sitting as the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal, the Senate Electoral Tribunal, or the Presidential Electoral Tribunal depending on the election being appealed.
Calendar.
The election calendar was published by COMELEC in February 2021:
Timetable.
Ballot printing was initially scheduled to start on January 15, 2022. However, technical issues hounded the printing, and the commission postponed it to January 17, and then to January 19. The commission started printing ballots on January 20, 2022.
Parties and coalitions.
As this was a presidential election year, presidential candidates could endorse a running mate for vice president, a senatorial slate, district and party-list representatives, and local officials, who may not necessarily be of the same party or coalition. According to Joy Aceron, an academic from the Ateneo De Manila University, political parties in the Philippines have been described as "temporary political alliances", or it is argued that there are no parties at all, merely "fan clubs of politicians". Party-switching is not uncommon, and the dependence of parties on personalities