Vice President Leni Robredo has called on young Filipinos to register to vote for the May 2022 polls so that the election of the country’s new leaders won’t be left to “chance.”
“Hindi siya puwedeng parang ano lang, parang iyong kampanya natin parang nasa hangin lang. Parang we don’t leave it to chance (It can’t be just like a campaign in the wind. We don’t leave it to chance),” Robredo, an opposition leader, said.
The vice president made the call during the weekly online show of former Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal on his YouTube channel.
Robredo lamented the many young voters are eligible to vote, but they did not register despite efforts of advocacy groups convincing them to do so.
She explained this was borne out by the wrong perception that their votes won’t matter in the results of the elections.
“Parang naging manhid na iyong iba. Manhid in the sense na, ‘Wala namang mangyayari, isang boto lang naman ako (It seems like the others have become numb. They are numb in the sense that ‘nothing will happen because I’m just one vote),’” Robredo said.
The lady official recalled the defeat of all opposition candidates in the Otso Diretso senatorial slate in 2019 even as they had strong support from students based on campus surveys.
Robredo noted the Otso Diretso bets did not win because their young supporters were not able to vote.
“Walang nakapasok sa Top 12 kasi iyong mga estudyanteng bumuboto sa kanila during the surveys, hindi naman bumoboto sa real elections (No candidate did not enter the Top 12 because students, who voted for them during the surveys, did not vote in real elections),” she said.
READ: https://mb.com.ph/2019/05/15/robredo-thanks-otso-diretso-for-being-an-inspiration-to-the-people/
The opposition leader also mentioned the 2016 U.S elections wherein former President Donald Trump defeated Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton because most of her supporters did not vote despite leading in surveys.
Robredo suggested ways on how to encourage more Filipinos to register and vote for the upcoming national elections. Among which is tapping private groups for voter registration and free rides.
“There are a lot of creative ways of doing it pero kailangan talaga (but we really need) collaboration of many different groups. Kasi ang ordinaryong tao (Because ordinary people), even before the pandemic, lalo na iyong mga (especially those) apolitical, ayaw nilang pumunta kasi mahaba iyong pila (they don’t want to come because the queue is long),” she said.
“But you know, iyong LGU kasi saka iyong mga barangays (the LGU as well as the communities) can have a program to help different groups advocating for registration,” Robredo added, citing it would also be better to tap private groups to “avoid temptation of candidates soliciting votes.”