It has been a season of protests all over the island country of the Philippines ever since the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) the body in charge of elections in the country announced a landslide victory for Ferdinand Marcos. Over 400 people, most of them students, took to the streets to make known their outrage, congregating outside the COMELEC office and demanding an honest result.
Earlier the commission had announced that the polls were held successfully and dismissed all concerns raised by different groups concerning the members of the collation that had attempted to oust Marcos from the presidential race, following news of a tax evasion conviction in 1995.
Akbayan, a member of a leftist group and one of the opponents denounced the incident as “both a colossal and institutional failure” and said that his party would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. Also in support was the Human Rights Group Karapatan who put out a wide call for all Filipino denizens to reject the Marcos presidency and refuse all efforts to turn their eyes away from the Marcos family’s terrible crimes.
The current political situation is nothing new to Filipinos and as the protests ramp up all over the country, it remains to be seen whether or not the president-elect’s opponents will be successful in the quest to oust him from office.