Posts falsely claim outdated ballot template proves Philippine election fraud
- Published on April 18, 2025 at 10:20
- Updated on April 18, 2025 at 11:27
- 4 min read
- By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines
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A TikTok video posted April 14 shows an image of a sample ballot and highlights three senatorial candidates from PDP Laban, Duterte's political party: arrested pastor Apollo Quiboloy, former presidential secretary Vic Rodriguez and actor Phillip Salvador.
The purported ballot lists Quiboloy at No. 52, Rodriguez at No. 55 and Salvador at No. 57.
The video then juxtaposes this with the party's official campaign posters, which show numbers that are one higher for each candidate (archived link).
"The numbers shown for three PDP-Laban candidates became different. Beware," says the video's Tagalog caption, suggesting the Comelec altered the PDP Laban candidates' ballot numbers in an attempt to confuse voters.
Several other posts on Facebook and TikTok reshared the claim.
Campaigning began in February in the Philippines for midterm elections that could set the table for the next presidential race and determine the political future of impeached Vice President Sara Duterte (archived link).
Talk show hosts, movie stars and a preacher jailed on sex trafficking charges are among the candidates vying for a dozen open Senate seats.
While the vote will fill more than 18,000 posts nationwide, it is the would-be senators who are facing a duty few bargained for -- serving as jurists in the impeachment trial of Rodrigo Duterte's eldest daughter.
The vice president, whose alliance with President Ferdinand Marcos has imploded spectacularly, was impeached by the House of Representatives on February 5 on charges of "violation of the constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes".
Comments on the posts alleging election malfeasance indicate some users believed the claim.
"Cheating starts now," one user wrote. Another said: "What is this Comelec, type of error?"
But the posts share an older version of the official ballot template.
Outdated ballot
A Google reverse image search shows the video corresponds to an earlier template version the Comelec unveiled to the public on January 5 (archived link).
While this version did show Quiboloy at No. 52, Rodriguez at No. 55 and Salvador at No. 57, the Comelec later updated the ballot to reflect changes in the list of senatorial candidates.
On January 14, the Supreme Court ruled to add Subair Guinthum Mustapha to the ballot after it stopped the Comelec from disqualifying him for being a nuisance candidate (archived links here and here).
As a result, the Comelec had to reprint the ballots. The commission also updated the templates on its website (archived links here and here).
On February 24, PDP Laban's verified Facebook page showed candidates Quiboloy, Rodriguez and Salvador had moved one spot lower (archived link).
Ballot changes also affected some of the senatorial candidates under President Ferdinand Marcos's New Philippines Alliance -- not only the three PDP Laban candidates, as the posts falsely claim (archived link).
The total number of senatorial contenders remained at 66 after candidate Chavit Singson dropped from the race on January 16 (archived link).
AFP contacted the Comelec for comment, but a response was not forthcoming.
AFP has fact-checked misinformation related to the 2025 midterm elections here.
This article was updated in the lead to note that the Philippine midterm elections are May 12, 2025, not May 13.April 18, 2025 This article was updated in the lead to note that the Philippine midterm elections are May 12, 2025, not May 13.
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