Today, Monday, May 13 2019, is election day.
Article V, Section 1 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution provides for the right to vote: “Suffrage may be exercised by all citizens of the Philippines not otherwise disqualified by law, who are at least eighteen years of age, and who shall have resided in the Philippines for at least one year, and in the place wherein they propose to vote, for at least six months immediately preceding the election. No literacy, property, or other substantive requirement shall be imposed on the exercise of suffrage.”
Thus, everyone is expected to go to their polling places and cast their votes. It is every Filipino’s responsibility to exercise his right to choose the leaders of the country in return to the right granted to him by the Constitution.
There are 61,843,750 registered voters in the country and 1,822,173 Filipinos registered to vote overseas. In Davao City, there are 984,604 registered voters.
Conversely, there will be over 18,000 national and local positions up for grabs in today’s midterm elections. The positions to be filled are 12 senators, 59 party-list representatives, 243 district representatives, 81 governors, 81 vice governors, 780 provincial board members, 145 city mayors, 145 city vice mayors, 1,628 city councilors, 1,489 municipal mayors, 1,489 municipal vice mayors, and 11,916 municipal councilors.
In order to elect honest and deserving officials to achieve the change we want in the Philippines, the only way to go is to cast your votes. Not doing so and disregarding a sacred right is an omission one will have to regret for his future and his family’s future.
