EU Mission Notes Gains, Gaps in 2025 Philippine Election

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM) to the Philippines on Thursday, July 3, released its final report on the 2025 elections, stating that while there were some notable improvements, many key issues from previous cycles have continued to persist.

In its 106-page report, the EU-EOM remarked that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) administered the elections efficiently.

“[The Comelec] took proactive measures to promote inclusiveness and attempted to address entrenched vote-buying practices, but its extensive powers to exclude and disqualify candidates based on non-objective criteria, and to suspend the proclamation of duly elected officials are not in line with key international standards,” the report read.

While the report cited the high number of candidates in the election (66 senatorial candidates, 615 for the House of Representatives, and 155 party-lists), they also observed a lack of “genuine competition.”

They cited the number of final senatorial candidates, many House districts having no opposing candidates, the composition of the party-list field, and the prevalence of political dynasties.

“While these figures may suggest a wide range of options for voters, genuine competition was limited by several factors: the Comelec rejected a significant number of senatorial candidacies (118 out of 184 applications), one-fifth of the House districts offered only one candidate, predominantly the incumbent; the national party-list system, originally intended to amplify the voices of marginalized sectors, was largely co-opted by established parties, and power remained concentrated among a few dominant political families,” they said in the report.

They also took notice of the “scattered and not harmonized” electoral laws, citing the subsequent legislation passed after Batas Pambansa Blg. 881 (Omnibus Election Code), and the broad discretion by the Comelec and the judiciary over interpreting and applying electoral rules.

“Provisions on voters’ and candidates’ eligibility, political party and candidate registration, campaign finance, election observation, election disputes, and sanctions require revision to bring them in line with international instruments related to elections. Key issues remain unaddressed, namely a comprehensive regulation of political parties and provisions to curb the dominance of political families,” they stated.

Several of the actions lauded by the mission include Comelec’s resolutions targeting reforms in overseas absentee voting, digital campaigning, disinformation, artificial intelligence, and campaign activities, and their outreach toward media and civil society organizations in information-sharing and taking suggestions.

But they also shared concerns on some observations, including prioritizing inflexible technical procedures over clear and accurate information to voters, and dismissing concerns raised regarding the electoral process.

They cited the early printing of ballots before the list of official candidates was finalized, and the cyberlibel case filed against then-candidate Jeryll Harold Respicio over his publicized concerns on potential hacking of the automated counting machines (ACMs).

While the procurement and use of new ACMs for this election cycle was well-received, they also noted how the Verified Voter Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) was not used against the transmitted results to verify their accuracy.

“The absence of an established procedure to verify VVPATs against the election results limited the potential for meaningful transparency and full confidence in the process. Calls for a manual count of the ballots were consistently raised by numerous stakeholders before and after the elections,” they said.

Yet another concern was the distribution of aid to constituents, which they coined as a form of “bidding wars” among candidates.

“The EU-EOM observed several indications and received credible reports of vote buying through the distribution of cash and goods, including instances of so-called ‘bidding wars’ among candidates. These practices could compromise voters’ ability to freely express their will at the ballot box. The playing field was further skewed in favor of incumbents, with the EU-EOM observing or receiving credible reports of the partisan distribution of welfare payouts (ayuda) across the country,” they reported.

One positive improvement they observed was a better environment for the news media, citing a “general atmosphere” reported by media interlocutors, and the proactive stance of the Comelec against disinformation and awareness of artificial intelligence-generated content.

But these, like other concerns, are not without challenges, including the death of a journalist during the election period, and the EU-EOM’s social media monitoring unit’s finding that some candidates boosted their campaigns by artificially increasing their followers.

The mission held a press conference to launch the findings on Thursday, where chief observer Marta Temido, a member of the European Parliament from Portugal, explained their observation on the campaign boost.

She cited their report indicating their analysis that between March 28 and May 11, the number of Facebook followers for some candidates increased by more than a million.

“Any individual with an online presence is a pool of followers, and we saw that under certain circumstances this pool may grow rapidly, a viral effect. However, if the number of followers increases by tens or even hundreds of thousands overnight without any visible cause, it could be considered a suspicious attempt to boost a campaign. This is not illegal, but can mislead potential voters, undermining their ability to make informed choices,” Temido explained.

The EOM made a total of 21 recommendations based on their observations, with seven marked as “priority,” including:

• Recodification of the electoral system’s legal framework, consolidating the text of the electoral code with existing election legislation so that discrepancies and inconsistencies are removed.
• Removal of blanket restrictions on the right to active and passive suffrage for convicted imprisoned citizens, including the five-year suspension after a sentence is served.
• Right of access to polling precincts should be made explicit for all duly accredited national and international election observers, not just those from citizen arms organizations, and for duly accredited candidate/party representatives (poll watchers) from all contesting parties, not just those from dominant majority and minority parties.
• Objective criteria as a basis for decisions on the rejection of the registration of candidates, which should also be spelled out in the legal framework.
• Repeal of criminal defamation provisions, including for online activities, in favor of civil sanctions designed to restore the reputation harmed, which should be strictly proportionate to the harm caused.
• Temporary special measures to achieve gender parity in elected and appointed positions, as well as considering incentives for political parties to promote more women in leadership positions and as candidates for election.
• Adequate means of voting in secret in terms of polling layout and booths, as well as training electoral boards and focusing on voter education about the importance of a secret vote, including in local absentee voting and voting by persons with disabilities, indigenous voters, and detainee voters.

On countering disinformation and red-tagging, deputy chief observer Manuel Sanchez de Nogues pointed out that part of their recommendation is further strengthening and maintaining a sustainable support system for independent media, investigative journalists, and fact-checking, alongside continued media and digital literacy program expansions for all sectors of society.

The EU-EOM worked from March 28 to June, with 226 individual observers from EU member states, as well as from Canada, Norway, and Switzerland.