By KEVIN ORTIZ
Bulatlat.com

CAVITE – The 2025 Philippine midterm elections “did not meet international standards for free and fair elections,” according to the final report of the International Observers Mission (IOM) released May 27, citing “grave and widespread violations” of human rights across the country.

“The rights of Filipinos to vote freely and without coercion were compromised,” says IOM Commissioner Lee Rhiannon. “The climate of fear, normalized vote-buying and militarization that surrounded the election reflects a failure to uphold international democratic standards.”

For the 2025 mission organized by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP), more than 50 international human rights advocates took part, with field observers deployed to priority areas with histories of election-related violence. 

The Mission partnered with local watchdogs such as Kontra Daya and Vote Report PH, while remote teams monitored digital disinformation, overseas absentee voting (OAV), and voting irregularities abroad.

The mission’s findings point to a confluence of factors that severely undermined the integrity of the electoral process: voter disenfranchisement, widespread vote-buying, systemic human rights violations, the entrenched power of domestic political dynasties, and the foreign military influence in local political affairs.

“Our findings point to a widespread pattern of repression and vote-buying alongside threats of foreign interference,” said IOM Commissioner Andrea Mann. “The red-tagging of progressive candidates, vote-buying, disenfranchisement, and militarization are not isolated problems. These reflect a deeply compromised system.” 

“Given the scale and severity of these violations, we conclude that the 2025 Philippine elections failed to meet international standards for free, fair, and democratic elections,” Mann stated.

In a news report, Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia rejected the IOM’s finding of massive disenfranchisement in the midterm elections. 

IOM Commissioner Lee Rhiannon countered this, saying that the failure of hundreds of automated counting machines, the climate of fear through red tagging and actual violence, the fact that May 12 was an unpaid holiday, and the significant hurdles faced by overseas Filipinos meant that hundreds of thousands did not get to vote.

The IOM noted disenfranchisement due to technical and procedural failures. Overseas Filipino voter turnout reached an all-time low of 18.12 percent due to inaccessible voting systems. 

Domestically, long lines and malfunctioning vote-counting machines hindered voters, while elections were disrupted in places like Datu Odin Sinsuat, affecting over 80,000 people and limiting their right to vote.

“The IOM documented 112 verified cases of red-tagging, and our local partner Vote Report PH received 1,445 citizen reports of red-tagging across the country. These are not isolated incidents; they represent a pattern of fear and repression that deters participation,” said ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy. 

Recommendations

The IOM provides recommendations regarding the stated violations which are the adoption of a hybrid election system that allows for both manual and automated vote verification, the urgent passage of the long-delayed Anti-Dynasty Bill, and measures to ensure nonpartisanship and transparency of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

The observers also highlighted the need for legal reforms that would empower voters to report violations such as vote-buying without fear of retaliation.

They also urged the Philippine government to criminalize red-tagging, outlaw the use of private armies, repeal the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, and rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC) as essential steps toward restoring democratic space and accountability. 

These measures, the report states, are vital to protecting civil society, enabling peaceful political participation, and rebuilding public confidence in the country’s democratic institutions.

“Free and fair elections cannot occur in an environment where voters are manipulated by fear, opposition voices are silenced, and foreign powers shape public discourse. Moore said. 

“Elections that are genuinely free and fair have nothing to fear from the presence of impartial international observers. We remain committed to accompanying the Filipino people in their pursuit of democratic governance and upholding the principles of accountability and transparency,” Rhiannon stated. (RTS, RVO)