Overseas absentee voters took to social media to air their frustrations about the discrepancies and issues they have experienced while casting their votes for the 2022 elections.
Overseas voting began on April 10 and while some were excited to vote, many Filipinos were disappointed in their poll experiences.
The most notable of such reports of ballots that had been allegedly pre-shaded with candidates not of their own choosing.
Voters in countries like Sweden, the United States, Canada, Singapore, Dubai, and Hong Kong experienced what Philippine embassies later claimed as “human errors.”
Mark Dennis Chico Retrato, a Filipino voter in Sweden, in a Facebook post claimed that he received two mail ballots from the Philippine embassy.
Retrato said he did not have problems with the first ballot he received on April 11, saying he checked everything to ensure that his vote would be counted. However, on the day after receiving the first ballot, the voter received another ballot that had his name misspelled and did not have the return envelope from the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Retrato added that the two ballots had different ballot numbers and the other did not have the official stamp.
He sent an email to the Philippine Embassy in Sweden regarding the matter and the office on April 13 released a public notice, saying there may have been an element of human error.
Diana Castillo-Banares, a Filipino voter in Canada, commented on Retrato’s post, saying there was also a discrepancy in her name when she tried to claim her ballot.
Castillo-Banares claimed that she filled out her form correctly when she registered for overseas voting. She was able to receive her ballot from the Philippine Embassy in Canada, which said they would just notify COMELEC about the data discrepancy and assured her that her vote will be counted.
“Di ko alam kung [typographical error] lang ba talaga yung nangyari o talagang may motibo…Hay Pilipinas kung mahal need talaga #BantayBoto!,” she said.
Another voter based in Singapore, Cheryl Abundo, said her ballot was pre-shaded. When she returned it to the Philippine embassy in Singapore to get a new one, the office said it was a “spoiled ballot” from the day before she received it.
In her Facebook post, Abundo warned overseas voters against such cases and called on voters to be vigilant and file reports if a similar incident happens.
After posting her Facebook status, Abundo said she received threats from a “random person.”
The threat read: “Hi Cheryl Ab. Please do make sure you are not making this shit up. Just so you know the last time someone made up a story about politicians and did spread on socmed, he was found dead three days after, smothered in his sleep to death… I am warning you.”
Other cases of pre-shaded ballots overseas
Some overseas Filipino voters said that their ballots were shaded with Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as the president and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio as the vice president.
The Philippine Embassy in Singapore, however, denied the allegations of pre-shaded ballots in Singapore.
According to a CNN Philippines report, the embassy confirmed that a spoiled ballot of Abundo was “inadvertently and unintentionally” given to a voter on April 11 but said it was an isolated case.
In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the Philippine embassy said the ballot was from a voting exercise on April 10. The office added that the incident is in the official minutes of voting for automated elections system (AES) voting posts.
On April 11, two senators, namely Sens. Aquilino Pimentel III and Imee Marcos urged the Comelec to investigate the incidents. Senatorial bet and former Philippine National Police Chief Guillermo Eleazar also called on the electoral body to conduct an investigation into the matter.
Despite the poll incidents, Comelec said on April 11 that some voting posts on the first day of overseas voting were successful.
On the same day, Comelec said pre-shaded ballot-related posts circulating online are not true, although the poll body said that its task force against fake news was going to meet that afternoon to verify the claims.
“Wala po kaming natanggap na report kahit sa ating post, kahit na kaming mga opisyal natin dun sa Singapore and therefore, fake news po iyun. May kumakalat rin po na sa Dubai daw meron ding [pre-shaded ballot],” COMELEC Commissioner George Garcia said in a briefing one day after overseas voting began.
On April 14, vice presidential aspirant Duterte-Carpio expressed support for calls on the Comelec to probe the pre-shaded ballot allegations.
