MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos based in North America have expressed “extreme disappointment” after US President Joe Biden congratulated presumptive president-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as it legitimizes what they called the questionable results of the elections.
Over a hundred individuals and groups are rejecting the results of the recently concluded May 9 polls because of the various problems that surfaced on election day. Among the signatories are members of US Filipinos for Good Governance, GABRIELA, Migrante USA chapters, US university student groups as well as Leni-Kiko volunteers.
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“We believe that this is premature and is preemptive of the ongoing verification of election results,” their manifesto reads.
Partial and unofficial results show Marcos Jr. leading with over 31 million votes, while opposition leader and Vice President Leni Robredo trails with only 14 million votes.
But this has been clouded by doubts after broken vote counting machines, reports of vote buying, and registered overseas Filipino voters complained of delayed and damaged ballots.
The group is calling on the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, Legal Network for Truthful Elections, and the National Movement for Free Elections to manually encode and canvass ballots individually to “produce authentic results.”
“We can’t bow down to questionable electoral results, much less dance with dictators and criminals like [Marcos Jr.] whose father, on the record, plundered billions and killed thousands of innocent lives,” the group said.
Marcos Jr.’s presidential campaign has been hounded by questions on his family’s ill-gotten wealth. The Bureau of Internal Revenue no less confirmed that the Marcos family also has yet to settle a P203.8-billion estate tax debt.
READ: BIR confirms demanding P203.8 billion in taxes from Marcos
While the Commission on Elections has proclaimed 12 new senators-elect on Wednesday, the canvassing of votes for the positions of president and vice president has yet to begin.
The processing of votes for the country’s top positions is done separately by Congress, which will resume session next week.
READ: Robin Padilla tops Senate race as Comelec proclaims 12 senators-elect
Meanwhile, the groups are also calling on the US and Canadian government to suspend its security assistance to the Philippines and wait until the rights situation in the country has improved and people are held accountable.
They also want both governments to impose targeted sanctions through the Magnitsky Act for those with human rights violations in the country, naming President Rodrigo Duterte and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
For the meantime, the group is calling on the opposition not to concede.