Village (Barangay) Elections, 2013

Earthquake, October 2013 

On 15 October 2013, the Philippines was struck by a Richter Scale-7.2 earthquake, primarily affecting the province of Bohol (Bueza 2013a). An island province, Bohol is one of the seismically active areas in the country (PPDO Bohol 2013). Devastation caused by the earthquake in the province included the destruction of 42,711 homes, the displacement of 465,146 people and the death of 211 people (DSWD 2014). The earthquake triggered a blackout as well as damage to major infrastructure, public sector buildings, tourism facilities and other businesses estimated to cost billions of pesos. It coincided with a national holiday for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. While casualties from stampedes did occur, the timing of the disaster possibly saved the lives of many who would otherwise have been inside buildings during their collapse (PPDO Bohol 2013). 

Impact on the electoral process 

Village elections were scheduled to occur in 42,208 barangays (sub-districts) less than two weeks later on 28 October 2013. Officials in Bohol declared a state of emergency in the province (Josephs 2013) and on the day after the earthquake, 16 October, the Governor asked the Election Commission (COMELEC) for an electoral postponement in the province. Both President Benigno Aquino III and COMELEC officials visited Bohol to assess the damage. COMELEC officials reported that their offices were not operational in 14 towns of Bohol, but that there was still a possibility that barangay elections would proceed as scheduled (Bueza 2013a). 

Ultimately, barangay elections in 40,028 villages in the rest of the country were held as planned on 28 October, while Bohol’s were postponed until 25 November, five days before the terms of the incumbents ended (Apilado and Baluyot 2013). Since the polls were manual and conducted in daylight from 07:00–15:00, election authorities provided polling precincts with rechargeable lamps in case the manual counting and certification of votes extended into the night. According to COMELEC, the Bohol elections in 1,109 barangays for 799,809 registered voters were “generally peaceful” and saw a high turnout (Bueza 2013b).