Philippine Suffrage and Voting Rights

Suffrage

• Suffrage is the right and obligation to vote of qualified citizens in the election of public officers, with no literacy, property, or other substantive requirements.
• To exercise suffrage, citizens must be at least 18 years old, have resided in the Philippines for at least one year, and resided in the place where they will vote for at least six months prior to the election.

Characteristics of Suffrage

• Suffrage is a mere privilege, not a natural right, given or withheld by law.
• Suffrage enables citizens to participate in the process of government as a political right.

Scope of Suffrage

• Election: the process by which qualified citizens choose officials.
• Plebiscite: a vote of the people expressing their choice for or against a proposed law submitted to them.
• Referendum: the process of submitting a law passed by the legislative body to the people for their ratification or rejection.
• Initiative: people directly propose and enact laws.
• Recall: a process by which a local elective official may be removed from office during their tenure.

Qualifications

Age Qualification

• The assumption is that under a certain age, people have acquired sufficient maturity, experience, education, and judgment to vote with a reasonable degree of intelligence.

Residence Qualification

• A period of residence is needed to allow citizens to familiarize themselves with the needs and conditions and the personalities of the nation and locality.

Disqualifications

• Those who have been sentenced to suffer imprisonment for not less than 1 year are disqualified from voting.
• Those who committed any crime involving disloyalty to the government, such as rebellion and sedition, are disqualified from voting.
• Those declared insane or incompetent persons are disqualified from voting.

Secrecy and Sanctity of the Ballot

• A system for securing the secrecy and sanctity of the ballot is necessary to ensure voters can exercise their right to vote freely without external influence and to ensure a fair and honest count of the ballots.

Absentee Voting System

• The absentee voting system allows Filipinos working abroad to vote, as they are part of the Republic and affected by the quality of public officials and policies of their country.

Republic Act No. 9189 (The Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003)

• All citizens of the Philippines abroad who are not otherwise disqualified by law and are 18 years old or older may vote for President, Vice-President, Senators, and party-list representatives.

Constitutional Commissions

The Constitutional Commissions

• Commission on Audit
• Civil Service Commission
• Commission on Elections

Characteristics of Constitutional Commissions

• Their salary is fixed by law and not decreased during their term.
• They have fiscal autonomy and can promulgate their own rules concerning pleadings and practice.
• Congress cannot abolish the Constitutional Commissions, as their creation is guaranteed by the Constitution.

Commission on Elections

• The Commission on Elections has a Chairman and 6 Commissioners.