1. Comelec records historic 81.

62% voter turnout

By

Kristine

Daguno-Bersamina

and

same time, the electronic transmission was at 17 and 23

Rosette

Adel (philstar.com) | Updated May 9, 2016 - 10:50pm

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/05/09/158163
4/comelec-records-historic-81.62-voter-turnout

percent, respectively.
Bautista said the higher rate of electronic transmission this
year can be attributed to their well-executed plans.
Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

MANILA, Philippines Commission on Elections (Comelec)

Chair Juan Andres Andy Bautista on Monday evening
announced that the poll bodys voter turnout for the May 9
polls reached a historic 81.62 percent.
Of the 54.4 million registered voters, about 40 million actually
exercised their right of suffrage.
Bautista announced the figures amid positive feedback on the
fast transmission of the voting results for over 90,000
precincts nationwide.
The Comelec chair said the transmission rate was relatively
higher in 2016 compared to the previous elections.
At 10:50 p.m. Monday, the transmission rate for 2016
elections was already at 74 percent. In 2010 and 2013 of the

Simple lang, as I said pinag-aralan namin yung 2010 at 2013.

Saan ba malakas yung signal? Saan mahina yung signal?
Nung 2016, gumawa din kami ng sariling site survey para
malaman kung ano ba dapat, said Bautista.
He also gave credit to the telecommunication companies
which collaborated with the poll body.
Malaki din ang tulong ng mga telcos dahil nakipagpulong
tayo sa kanila. Tatlong bagay lang, please ensure privacy,
priority and security, he said.
Bautista stressed the need for swift election results since a
delay may stir suspicion.

If the transmission is not accurate and quick, then there may

be allegations, that something is going on. So we have to
release results as quickly as possible, he said.

2.
2016: Time of the new generations
6
BY YEN MAKABENTA ON JULY 6, 2015

http://www.manilatimes.net/2016-time-of-the-newgenerations/198158/
Last Saturday, July 4, the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
blandly announced, without fanfare and bullhorn, that it has now in
the voters registry some 50 million voters.
The Comelec made the announcement during the launch of its
stepped-up voter registration drive at malls in Metro Manila.
Comelec Chairman Andres Bautisa said they expect the number of
voters to increase as the agencys Election Registration Boards go
through pending applications for voters registration and
reactivation.

We should have around 54 to 56 million. Right now, we have about

50 million and we still have to clean up our list and include the new
voters, he told the media during the opening of a satellite
registration booth at the Glorietta Mall in Makati City last Saturday.
Nine other malls in Metro Manila opened satellite registration
booths the same day.
Half
of
population
are
voters
According to Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, in the 2013 midterm elections, there were 52 million registered voters. The figure
went down to 48 million after those who failed to vote in the midterm and barangay (village) polls in 2013 were stricken off the list.
Continuing, he explained: Thats actually a regular cycle in our
elections. The number would go down [after an election]because of
those who failed to vote twice and then we would build up again
during registration. Now we have 50 million voters.
I find it stunning that 50 million voters represent nearly half of the
countrys total population of 102 million.
Without doubt, the voting population size will critically affect
campaign messages, strategies and tactics of many candidates,
especially in the presidential race.
Generation
X
and
Generation
Y
What is driving up the voters rolls? Where are the new registrants
coming from?
The simple answer is: the new generations. Specifically Generation
X (citizens born between 1961 and 1980) and Generation Y (citizens

born between 1980 and 2000), who are popularly known as the
Millennial generation or millennials for short.

Youth participation in the electoral process in 2016 could be a major

factor, making or breaking candidates.

These two generations will be a potent force in the 2016 balloting.

Why
youth
choices
will
matter
I personally believe that the Filipino youth will get involved in a big
way in the 2016 elections for the following reasons:

Of the 50 million who are estimated to have registered and will be

eligible to vote in the 2016 elections, the new generations will
comprise about 28 million. The Comelec, however, does not have a
breakdown of voters according to age groups.
With the 1998 elections as base, the authors, Ma. Lourdes Tiquia
and Maria Irene Cariaga, in their book Campaign Politics (revised
2001edition), provided a profile of youth-voter demographics in the
country:

First, the new generations have a big stake in the 2016 elections.
Most will come to maturity during the presidential term of the next
President (2016 to 2021). Many will be landing their first jobs then.
And many will also be starting their own families during the period.
Jobs will be their top priority.

wrote:

Second, many among the youth were politicized by the Aquino

years. Many got to care about politics because of the excesses and
failures of President Aquino. The Noynoying meme made them
laugh.

In terms of age-group distribution, the countrys total population is

dominated by 19 year-olds and below, or what are collectively now
known as Generation Y.

Third, sheer numbers make Generation Y a factor in the elections.

They are the largest generation in Philippine history, bigger than any
earlier generation.

They number around 34.4 million or about 49.21 percent of the

total population, while Generation X, those aged 20 to 40 years old,
makes up another 30.89 percent or 21.62 million.

In the book, The Age Curve, author Kenneth Gronbach writes of a

generational parade occurring in every society. Gronbach wrote:
Every twenty years or so, the United States creates a new
generation.

They
The Filipino voter is young.

Together, both generations easily comprise 70.83 percent of the

total number of Filipinos.
And then they noted: While the Filipino youth, particularly
Generation Y, has the demographics, they have yet to carve a niche
in the political process.

Because of their massive numbers, millennials will need to create

their own world, and compete for everything just as the boomers
did. They will of necessity become entrepreneurs and start a sea of
small businesses to meet their own needs. They are already
redefining the automobile.

Millennials
will
change
our
country
Time magazine in a cover story in May 2013 called the millennials
the new greatest generation and predicted the millennials will
save us all.

Time and The Age Curve arrive at the same conclusion: Generation
Y is going to change countries, far more than Generation X.

It concluded: Each countrys millennials are different, but because

of globalization, social media, the exporting of Western culture and
the speed of change, millennials worldwide are more similar to one
another than to older generations within their nations.

Perhaps we will begin to know the change starting with the 2016
elections.

The Internet has democratized opportunity for many young people,

giving them access and information that once belonged mostly to the
wealthy.
Voters profile: Nearly half are unemployed
Published June 8, 2015 3:04pm
By KAREN P. TIONGSON-MAYRINA and BRENDA C.
BARRIENTOS-VALLARTA, GMA News Research
See
more
at:
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/500370/news/spec
ialreports/voters-profile-nearly-half-areunemployed#sthash.5nmSBUVW.dpuf

Whats true of the US will probably be also true of the Philippines.

3.
Nearly half of the voting-age population then were not gainfully
employed, many were high school graduates, most were married,
and most were Catholic.
The last national census in 2010 placed the official population count
at 92.3 million, with more than half or 55.7 million being 18 and
older, and eligible to vote.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/500370/news/spec
ialreports/voters-profile-nearly-half-are-unemployed

The Philippine Statistics Authority projects that the figure will reach
65.2 million in 2016, but former Comelec Commissioner Gregorio
Larazzabal said the electorate's 2010 profile would still be relevant
in the coming elections.

Government experts believe that the number of Filipinos reached

100 million last year, but the profile of the voters that elected
President Benigno Aquino III in 2010 is expected to remain the
same when they return to the polls in 2016.

There is no significant bump in the curve. No sudden upsurge in

employment or enrollment in schools, Larazzabal told GMA News
in a recent interview.
Political analyst Malou Tiquia said these figures show a voting-age
population who would elect people promising them food on the
table.

These numbers paint the sad canvass of Filipino voters. A young

pool only able to finish high school, married early and yet not
gainfully employed point to a survival mode, Tiquia said.
Voter preference tends to become personal, that is, who can give a
better future. Bigger issues are of no interest to such demographics,
politics of the stomach is," she added.
Relative to the projected population next year, six in 10 Filipinos are
potential voters.

The demographic characteristics of this pool of potential voters are

not yet known as the PSA is set to conduct the next census in
August this year.
But while the average age, educational attainment or occupation of
next years voters are unknown, those of the voters who elected
President Aquino in 2010 can be scrutinized.

Manual workersincluding laborers, farmers, and fishermen

comprised a total of 32 percent of voting-age Filipinos in 2010,
equivalent to 17.6 million people.
Among manual workers, laborers, and unskilled workers composed
the biggest chunk14 percent or 7.6 million people.
Farmers, forestry workers, and fishermen took up 12 percent or
equal to 6.7 million Filipinos eligible to vote in 2010.
Plant and machine operators and assemblers made up 6 percent or
3.3 million.
Trade workers, managers/government officials and services/sales
workers each took up around 5 percent, each equivalent to around
2.7 million people of voting age in 2010.
Professionals and clerks each comprised 3 percent or 1.7 million
voting-age Filipinos in 2010.

Of the 55.7-million voting-age population in the last presidential

elections, nine in 10 were registered voters.

Tiquia said that given this profile, the economy and jobs will be the
top issues for voters.

Of the 50.9 million registered voters, three-fourths actually voted.

Of the 38.2 million who actually voted, 40 percent cast their votes
for Aquino as President.

When a plurality is not gainfully employed, it means that at the

macro level, the economy is an important variable that influence
voting preference; and jobs as well as opportunities are defining
issues for 2016. Such themes are reflective in the behavior of Class
D and E which constitute almost 60 percent of the voting
population, she said.

4 in 10 are not employed

4 in 10 are high-school graduates

Some 23.9 million or 43 percent of the 2010 voting-age population

were not gainfully employed, which PSA defines as a person who
has no occupation because he/she is a student, housewife or
retired from work.

Of Filipinos 18 years and older in 2010, some 20.8 million were

high-school graduates.
Those with elementary education followed, making up 27.19
percent or 15 million Filipinos of voting age in 2010.

Some 8.14 million or 14.66 percent were college degree holders

while 13.21 percent or 7.34 million were college undergraduates.
There were 1.22 million voting-age Filipinos who were not able to
complete any grade level.

The 'millennial vote'

Ateneo School of Government Dean Antonio La Via said the
voting-age population comprise very clearly a youth vote.
Millennials, those born between 1980 and the early 2000s, will
comprise a big chunk of voters in 2016 if the 2010 census data will
be the jumping-off point.

But Comelec Commissioner Luie Tito Guia believes the youth have
adopted the pervasive cynicism toward elections and the
government.
The youth used to evince the hope that elections will produce
better leaders. The assumption is that they will not succumb to vote
buying, de Guia said.
The problem now, however, is that the youth, as a sector, seems to
be apathetic and will not likely have deep involvement in the
advocacy of social and political reform and good governance, he
added.
Adults aged 35 to 44 had the third biggest share of the 2010 votingage population at 11.5 million. Middle-aged Filipinos number 8.6
million. There were 9.2 million early retirees and senior citizens
among voting-age Filipinos in 2010.

Millennial voters will be 18 to 36 years old by 2016.

8 in 10 are Catholics
The Philippine population pyramid has a base indicating a bigger
young population that gradually tapers to the older age groups.
Based on the 2010 census age cluster, 14.2 million of Filipinos who
were eligible to vote in 2010 were aged 25 to 34 years old.
The youngest eligible votersaged 18 to 24made up almost 22
percent of the voting-age population in 2010.
Combined, these age groups were 47 percent of the voting-age
pool, equivalent to 26.4 million people, in the last presidential
elections.

Ang pinaka-importante dito ay iyong youth vote, very clearly it is a

youth vote.... Half of our voters are millennials. This means they are
connected to the internet, they can be persuaded to be idealistic if
they find a candidate that can inspire them, La Via said.

Some 45.3 million Filipinos or 82 percent of the 2010 voting-age

population belonged to the Roman Catholic Church.
Some 2.6 million or 5 percent of Filipinos eligible to vote in 2010
were Muslims.
The Iglesia ni Cristo and the Philippine Council of Evangelical
Churches each had around 1.4 million members of voting age in
2010.
Tiquia said the big percentage of Catholics among voting-age
Filipinos is irrelevant because there is no Catholic vote.
If it were, candidates with questionable or compromised
backgrounds would not have seen the light of day in the country.
The fact that dynasties rule in some areas and old political names
make it at the national level in a Catholic country does not speak

well of the religious influence and religious nurturing that tend to be

the basis of voter preference. It is oxymoronic at best, Tiquia said.

Kapag senatorial, iba na. I think Muslims tend to vote against those
who are deemed to be anti-Muslim, La Via said.

La Via said Catholics do not vote as a group unlike the bloc-voting

Iglesia ni Cristo.

Half male, half female

The ones that matter for religion (is) INC. (They have) 1.3 million.
Makikita mo, INC matters in a close election, he said.
The Catholic voting population includes such Catholic charismatic
groups as El Shaddai, which claims to have 8 million members.

Taken as a whole, the voting-age population in 2010 is almost

evenly divided in terms of gender.
By age clusters, however, there are more eligible male voters in the
younger age groups 18 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to 44 and 45 to 54.
Females control the age groups 55 years old and above.

El Shaddai did not endorse candidates for president and vice

president in the 2010 elections. In the 2013 elections, the group
endorsed six "pro-life" senatorial candidates who had voted against
the Reproductive Health Law. Five made it to the Top 12.
INC endorsed President Aquino for President and DILG Secretary
Mar Roxas for vice president in the 2010 polls. In 2013, INC
reportedly chose to support seven Team PNoy and five United
Nationalist Alliance candidates. Ten out of the 12 won.
Another politicized religious group, Jesus is Lord Movement of
Brother Eddie Villanueva, had 124,000 members based on the
2010 census. Claiming the support of millions of JIL members,
Villanueva ran for president in 2010 but lost. He also lost in the
2013 senatorial elections.

The biggest disparity in the male-female ratio is in the 65 and up

age group: 58 percent of this cluster is female.

Wala tayong womens vote or feminine vote. Pero wala ring antiwomen vote. Actually, very fair ang Filipinos in terms of gender sa
voting. Its the reason why we have many women senators,
candidates. Si GMA (former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) is
an example, La Via said.
More than half married

La Via said JIL obviously does not vote as a bloc.

More than 32 million or 58 percent of the voting-age population in

2010 were married. Another seven percent or almost four million
had common-law or live-in partners.

The total votes of Eddie Villanueva do not even equal what their
block is supposed to be, he said.

Some 27 percent of Filipinos aged 18 and above were single. This

translated to more than 15 million people.

La Via said Muslims are important, too, because they are

clustered in a region. The Bangsamoro Basic Law, now undergoing
deliberations in Congress, is a deciding factor among Muslims.
Having a candidate whos anti-BBL might lose some Muslim votes
but not necessarily gain votes of others in the presidential elections.

Around six percent or three million were widowed. Almost two

percent or nearly one million were divorced or separated. NB/JJ
GMA News

See
more
at:
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/500370/news/spec
ialreports/voters-profile-nearly-half-are-unemployed#

sthash.5nmSBUVW.dpuf