Latest news with #Geonanga
France 24
08-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Digital voting breeds distrust among overseas Filipino workers
Thousands of overseas Filipino workers, or OFWs, have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos and his impeached vice president Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) show at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened April 13. But Jun Burlasa III, a Filipino working in Singapore, says he will not vote again if he has to do it online. "I'd rather do manual," the 50-year-old told AFP this week, describing the new system as "confusing and suspicious". At issue is a digital QR code generated after voting that leads users to a page asking them to verify their ballot has been submitted correctly. Below that is a box containing a jumble of computer code and candidate names. Burlasa said many of the names visible were candidates for whom he had not voted. Similar stories about the anxiety-inducing webpage have proliferated across social media, including Facebook posts that have reached thousands. Eman Villanueva, a Hong Kong-based activist with migrant rights group BAYAN, said he was unsure his vote had been properly counted. "There is absolutely no way for the voters to know if the votes that went through really reflected our choices," he said. In previous overseas elections, voters could review the names they selected after the fact, but Comelec told AFP the QR code was never supposed to serve that purpose. The landing page was only intended to verify a ballot's receipt, the commission said, adding that the name of every candidate running in the election should appear. "We are definitely considering the feedback and studying how to incorporate them in future elections," Ian Geonanga, Comelec's director of overseas voting, told AFP. Election watchdogs, however, say the commission failed to properly explain the new system and warn of the confusion risks disenfranchising voters. "It's a natural reaction of people that if you're not familiar with the system, then you won't trust it the first instance," said Ona Caritos, executive director of the nonprofit Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente). ChatGPT, disinfo and 2028 Since April 14, 1.5 million people have watched a video in which a Philippines-based engineer named Jaydee San Juan quizzes ChatGPT about the names visible on the ballot verification page. "It's highly likely showing the candidates that were selected/voted for using that ballot ID," the AI chatbot replied. Comelec, however, got the opposite answer when conducting the ChatGPT experiment itself, Geonanga told AFP. The election commission's efforts to quell fears about the new system, meanwhile, have been misrepresented to sow more disinformation. AFP fact-checkers recently debunked a video edited to make it appear Geonanga was saying online ballots were "designed" to rig the election's results. The fiasco has also left election watchdogs and migrant groups sceptical that the switch to online voting will boost turnout as intended. Danilo Arao, convenor of voting watchdog Kontra Daya, said even a small change to the ballot's design might have helped assuage fears he believes could lead to "widespread disenfranchisement". Lente's Caritos said losing trust in the online voting system could impact OFWs' participation in the 2028 presidential election. 'We don't want that, because if election results are not trusted by our voters, then it would go into the legitimacy of the government," she said. "It's a domino effect."
AFP
21-04-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Clipped video fuels Philippine poll rigging claims
"Here it is. Comelec is exposed for fraud during OFWs' online voting," reads the Tagalog-language caption of a Facebook reel with more than one million views, using the acronym for overseas Filipino workers. The clip, posted April 14, 2025, shows an interview with Comelec director for overseas voting Ian Geonanga, where he was asked about claims from some voters that their cast ballots included the names of candidates they had not selected. Geonanga is depicted responding: "It's part of the process. It's designed like that." Image Screenshot of the false video, taken on April 21, 2025 Comelec introduced the country's first online voting system as it kicked off the month-long voting period for overseas Filipinos for the May mid-term polls (archived link). It defended the system after confusion arose online over a code on the ballot that contained the full list of candidates, which led to doubts whether voters' choice was correctly recorded (archived link). Similar posts on Facebook and YouTube reshared the claim, but the video had been edited to omit the context of Geonanga's remarks. A reverse image search of the video's keyframes led to his interview with Philippine news outlet Rappler published on April 16 (archived link). "Comelec clarifies ballot code after voting online," the YouTube video's title reads. Image Screenshot comparison of the false video (L) and the Rappler interview uploaded on YouTube The full interview is more than five minutes long, but the circulating clip only shows the first 18 seconds and excludes Geonanga's further remarks. "It's the plaintext version of the ballot itself. If they scroll from start to finish, they will see all the list of candidates that are in the ballot itself," he says at the 44-second mark. "They will not really see which candidate they voted for because it is encrypted. It is designed like that." In a Facebook post on April 15, Comelec also rebuffed the edited clip (archived link). "There is no truth to the malicious Facebook video that was deliberately cut to remove the context of the statement," the agency's Tagalog-language statement reads. The full version of the interview shows the agency's clarification on the issue, it added. AFP has also fact-checked other election-related misinformation ahead of the Philippine mid-term vote.
Filipino Times
23-03-2025
- Politics
- Filipino Times
Comelec to overseas voters: Don't share photos of online ballots on social media
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has warned overseas voters against taking photos of their online ballots and sharing it on social media, as this constitutes an election offense. In a media briefing, Atty. Ian Michel Geonanga, Deputy Head of the Office of Overseas Voting for COMELEC, reminded voters in the UAE to refrain from taking photos or screenshots of the list of candidates they voted for during online voting. 'Isa pong election offense yung pagpapakita kung sino man ang binoto natin. Bawal pong ipakita yung digital ballot itself,' Geonanga said. 'Tulad din po noon na laging paulit-ulit na sinasabi ng ating Comelec, na 'wag picture-an yung balota, 'wag natin siyang i-display o ipakita sa social media, ganoon din po dito sa internet voting. Hindi niyo rin po pwedeng ipakita kung sino yung binoto niyo,' he added. This rule is covered under Section 195 of the Omnibus Election Code, which states that it is unlawful to exhibit the contents of a ballot to any person to identify whom a voter has chosen. 'It shall likewise be unlawful to use carbon paper, paraffin paper, or other means for making a copy of the contents of the ballot or make use of any other means to identify the vote of the voter,' it read. Even a video tutorial on how to vote, despite its good intentions, is not recommended for posting on social media. If necessary, the names of the candidates should be blurred, Geonanga said. 'Nagpapasalamat po kami sa tulong ninyo para ma-educate ang mga botante natin, pero as much as possible i-blur niyo po yung binoto niyo. As long as nakikita siya, identifiable, that would constitute as an election offense,' he added. 'Iwasan po natin yung ganoong klase ng pag-share ng mga binoto natin sa social media,' he urged the voters. The voting period for the 2025 midterm elections for overseas Filipinos will be held from April 13 to May 12, 2025, while the pre-voting enrollment for online overseas voting will run from March 20 to May 7, 2025.
Filipino Times
23-03-2025
- Politics
- Filipino Times
Comelec to overseas voters: Don't take photos of online ballots
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has warned overseas voters against taking photos of their online ballots, as this constitutes an election offense. In a media briefing, Atty. Ian Michel Geonanga, Deputy Head of the Office of Overseas Voting for COMELEC, reminded voters in the UAE to refrain from taking photos or screenshots of the list of candidates they voted for during online voting. 'Isa pong election offense yung pagpapakita kung sino man ang binoto natin. Bawal pong ipakita yung digital ballot itself,' Geonanga said. 'Tulad din po noon na laging paulit-ulit na sinasabi ng ating Comelec, na 'wag picture-an yung balota, 'wag natin siyang i-display o ipakita sa social media, ganun din po dito sa internet voting. Hindi niyo rin po pwedeng ipakita kung sino yung binoto niyo,' he added. This rule is covered under Section 195 of the Omnibus Election Code, which states that it is unlawful to exhibit the contents of a ballot to any person to identify whom a voter has chosen. 'It shall likewise be unlawful to use carbon paper, paraffin paper, or other means for making a copy of the contents of the ballot or make use of any other means to identify the vote of the voter,' it read. Even a video tutorial on how to vote, despite its good intentions, is not recommended for posting on social media. If necessary, the names should be blurred. 'Nagpapasalamat po kami sa tulong ninyo para ma-educate ang mga botante natin, pero as much as possible i-blur niyo po yung binoto niyo. As long as nakikita siya, identifiable, that would constitute as an election offense,' Geonanga said. 'Iwasan po natin yung ganoong klase ng pag-share ng mga binoto natin sa social media,' he urged the voters. The voting period for the 2025 midterm elections for overseas Filipinos will be held from April 13 to May 12, 2025, while the pre-voting enrollment for online overseas voting will run from March 20 to May 7, 2025.
