MANILA, Philippines – It took 10 hours before Emelita Querubin reached Metro Manila from the province of Isabela.
Querubin, a 58-year-old Ilocano, is a leader of a local group of supporters of Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. She had quite a long ride from home, but Querubin said it was worth it just to send the message of her fellow Marcos supporters: re-count the votes.
Marcos, based on the partial and unofficial tally, is currently losing the vice presidential race to Liberal Party bet Leni Robredo by over 200,000 votes.
Aside from the official canvassing of votes to be administered by the House and the Senate on May 25, Querubin and her fellow supporters are demanding the manual counting of votes for Marcos.
"Palagay ko sa re-count medyo mahihirapan sila doon. Kaya ayaw nila ng re-count kasi mapapahiya silang lahat," she said, accusing the ruling party of electoral fraud.
(I think it will be hard [for the administration to manipulate] election results in that way, that is why they do not want a re-count.)
Solemn rally
Querubin is only one of dozens of voices heard in a prayer vigil cum rally organized by Marcos supporters from May 14 to 17 at the Freedom Park in Manila.
The gathering was initiated on Facebook by Ronaldo Tuason of the non-governmental organization "Wanted: Bagong Bayani Maglilingkod" (Wanted: A New Hero to Serve).
According to the 48-year-old convenor, the rally was voluntarily attended by Marcos supporters, most of whom were from Metro Manila and nearby provinces such as Cavite, Laguna and Bulacan. There were also some Ilocanos like Querubin who attended the scheduled 5-day rally.
Those coming from far-flung areas and abroad were encouraged to conduct their own vigils at their respective locations, he said.
"Nagtipon-tipon kami dahil doon sa nakita namin na mukhang 'di maganda 'yung nagaganap na bilangan sa pangkalahatan.... Di gumagalaw lahat ang boto ng mga kandidatong hindi kasama sa administrasyon," he claimed.
(We convened here because we saw that it seems there is something fishy about the vote counts for all positions. All votes for candidates who are not part of the administration are not moving.)
For 3 days now, they have provided a venue for the senator's supporters to gather, talk, and pray for truthful election results.
Supporters start to come in at around past 3 to 4 pm. At around 6 pm, one person leads a prayer and they light a candle for their cause. Afterwards, said one of the volunteers, they just meet and talk about their support for the senator even until midnight.
Asked why they opted for a silent and solemn protest, Tuason told Rappler: "Ang pangangalampag sa Comelec ay tapos na. Marami nang pag-iingay na ang ginanap so sisimulan namin sa ganitong paraan." (Protesting before the [Commission on Elections] is already done. There have been so much noise made, so we wanted to do it this way.)
"Di ko masasabi sa susunod na araw o panahon, baka mas-agresibo pa ang darating na protestang ito," he added. (Maybe in the coming days we might stage a more aggresive protest.)
Official canvassing
The group said they will only take proactive action after the results of Congress' official canvassing of votes for the President and Vice President have been released.
Regy Hollero of the Alyansang Duterte at Bongbong (Aldub) said that should Robredo emerge as the winner, they will accept the results only if it is credible. He added that Comelec still has to answer several issues.
"Ang nirarally lang namin ngayon, sana tigilan na nila ang manipulation ng result. Sana sagutin nila 'yung [mga] tanong nina [Marcos] at kanyang legal team," said Hollero.
(What we are rallying for right now is for them to stop the manipulation of results. And also [for Comelec] to answer the questions of Marcos and his legal team.)
The Marcos camp had earlier called on the Comelec to explain the alleged breach in the Transparency Server that, as they claim, caused the change in the trend of the unofficial tally of votes that placed Robredo first in the 6-way race. (READ: Election data quash Marcos' cheating pattern claim)
In the early hours after polls closed on May 9, Marcos took the early lead in the race. But Robredo managed to overtake him and surge past the senator around 3 am on May 10. She has kept the lead since. On Sunday, her camp claimed victory, saying a Marcos win was "mathematically improbable."
Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista admitted the script in the server was modified, but said that it was just a cosmetic change - to replace the "?" that appears in the names of candidates with "ñ". He added that this has not affected the vote count in any way.
But the senator's camp maintained its position and asked the poll body to open the servers for inspection of their own IT experts and a public audit.– Rappler.com