2016 Philippine general election

← 2013 2019 →
Registered	55,739,911
Turnout	44,979,151 (80.69%4.92pp from 2013)
Presidential election
← 2010 2022 →
Candidate Rodrigo Duterte Mar Roxas Grace Poe Party PDP–Laban Liberal Independent Running mate Alan Peter Cayetano Leni Robredo Francis Escudero Popular vote 16,601,997 9,978,175 9,100,991 Percentage 39.02% 23.45% 21.39%
President before election Benigno Aquino III Liberal Elected President Rodrigo Duterte[1] PDP–Laban
Vice presidential election
← 2010 2022 →
Candidate Leni Robredo Bongbong Marcos Alan Peter Cayetano Party Liberal Independent Independent Popular vote 14,418,817 14,155,344 5,903,379 Percentage 35.11% 34.77% 14.38%
Vice President before election Jejomar Binay UNA Elected Vice President Leni Robredo Liberal
Senate election
← 2013 2019 →
12 (of the 24) seats to theSenate of the Philippines 13 seats needed for a majority
Alliance KDM PGP UNA Seats won 7 4 1 Popular vote 140,756,973 32,154,139 24,660,722 Percentage 43.81% 30.83% 7.68%
Senate President before election Franklin Drilon Liberal Elected Senate President Koko Pimentel PDP–Laban
House of Representatives election
← 2013 2019 →
All 297 seats in theHouse of Representatives of the Philippines 149 seats needed for a majority
Party Vote % Seats +/– Liberal 41.72 115 +6 NPC 17.04 42 0 NUP 9.67 23 −1 Nacionalista 9.42 24 +6 UNA 6.62 11 +3 Others 12.41 22 −2 Party-list — 59 0 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Speaker before Speaker after Feliciano Belmonte Jr. Liberal Pantaleon Alvarez PDP–Laban

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A general election in thePhilippines took place on May 9, 2016, for executive and legislative branches for all levels of government – national, provincial, and local, except for thebarangay officials.

At the top of the ballot was the election for successors to Philippine PresidentBenigno Aquino III and Vice PresidentJejomar Binay. There were also elections for:^[2]

• 12 seats to theSenate;
• All 297 seats to theHouse of Representatives;
• All governors, vice governors, and 772 seats toprovincial boards for 81provinces;
• All mayors and vice mayors for 145cities and for 1,489municipalities;
• All members of thecity councils and 11,924 seats onmunicipal councils; and
• Governor, vice governor and all 24 seats in the regional assembly of theAutonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The regional elections for theAutonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) were scheduled for May 9, but that would have changed if theBangsamoro political entity had replaced the ARMM. The ARMM elections pushed through, as scheduled.

Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections were scheduled for October 2016, but were postponed to 2017. Congress postponed anew to barangay elections to May 2018.

Elections are organized, run, and adjudicated by theCommission on Elections better known as COMELEC with appeals under certain conditions allowed to theRegional Trial Courts, theCongress of the Philippines, or theSupreme Court of the Philippines sitting as theHouse of Representatives Electoral Tribunal, theSenate Electoral Tribunal, or thePresidential Electoral Tribunal.

On May 4, 2015, PresidentBenigno Aquino III appointedPresidential Commission on Good Government chairmanAndres D. Bautista as chairman, and formerCommission on Audit memberRowena Guanzon and Bangsamoro Business Club's board chairman Sherif Abas as commissioners. Bautista replacedSixto Brillantes, while Guanzon and Abas replaced Lucenito Tagle and Elias Yusoph, who all retired in February 2015. All appointees will serve until February 2022.^[3]

A few days after the announcement, it was revealed that Abas is a nephew ofMohagher Iqbal, the chief negotiator of theMoro Islamic Liberation Front. Bautista said that Abas confirmed to him that he is Iqbal's nephew. Iqbal neither confirmed nor denied their relationship, calling it is a non-issue, and that there's nothing wrong if his nephew is appointed to a sensitive position.^[4]

Bautista was confirmed by theCommission on Appointments on September 21; meanwhile, Abas' confirmation was deferred because SenatorAlan Peter Cayetano, who was not present when Bautista was confirmed, still had questions to ask Abas.^[5]

The commission startedvoter registration for the elections on May 6, 2014, to October 31, 2015. Under the law, the 9.6 million registered voters who do not havebiometrics attached their registration will not be allowed to vote.^[6] Voter registration was suspended from October 12 to 16 to give way to the filing of candidacies. From October 17 to 31, the commission would extend its hours up to 9:00 p.m. to accommodate last minute registrants.^[7]

Voter registration was suspended inPuerto Princesa from April 20 to May 17, 2015, because of the2015 mayoral recall election. The Voters' Registration Act prohibits voter registration duringrecall elections.^[8]

In June 2015, the commission denied reports that some voters' biometrics were lost, saying that they were only "degraded," and that "two thousand" voters would have to have their biometrics taken again.^[9] A month later, the commission opened booths in Metro Manila and Luzon to further registration. By that time, there were still 4.3 million voters with incomplete biometrics.^[10] The commission, seeing the successful turnout for registration at the malls, mulled holding the elections itself inside such malls.^[11] The commission's en banc had already approved "in principle" the mall voting process.^[12] Near the end of the month, the commission said that the number of voters without biometrics has decreased to 3.8 million.^[13]

By mid-August, the commission announced that they had purged 1.3 million records from the voters' list, including the deceased and voters who did not vote in the two immediate preceding elections, the2013 general and2013 barangay, and that voters without biometrics had fallen to 3.5 million.^[14] By August 30, the number of registered voters without biometrics data had fallen to 3.1 million; this was after a Social Weather Stations poll came out that as much as 9.7 million people still had not updated their biometrics yet and could be disenfranchised.^[15]

The Commission on Elections concluded the 17-month registration on October 31, and offered no extension, except for voters in Cagayan Valley which was devastated by Typhoon Lando, who were given until the next day to finish theirs. This was despite a petition to the Supreme Court by the Kabataan party-list to extend registration until January 8, 2016.^[16] Acting on the said petition, the Supreme Court issued arestraining order on the No Bio, No Boto mandatory voters biometrics campaign on December 1.^[17] It was later lifted after 16 days.

The 2016 general elections represented the largest electronic vote counting exercise in history as 92,509 vote counting machines were used to digitize voter-marked ballots and transmit the results to the Municipal Board of Canvassers.

In April 2015, the counting machines were leased from London-basedSmartmatic after theSupreme Court of the Philippines invalidated the 300 million-peso contract between the Commission and the Smartmatic-TIM consortium for diagnostics and repair of 80,000 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines. The court said that the commission "failed to justify its resort to direct contracting."^[18]

Two months later, the Commission conducted a mock election where a "hybrid" system of manual counting and electronic transmission of results was tested out. Gus Lagman, former elections commissioner and a proponent of the hybrid system, pointed out the system's money-saving advantage and reliability, as opposed to full automation where the results can be manipulated.^[19] Meanwhile, the Commission overturned its self-imposed disqualification of Smartmatic from bidding on counting machines.^[20]

Senator Francis Escudero disapproved of the use of the hybrid system, saying "it brings back memories of theHello Garci controversy".^[21] A few days later, the Commission informed the House of Representatives Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms that they had decided not to use the hybrid system.^[22]

On a House of Representatives committee hearing held on late July, Elections chairman Andres Bautista told lawmakers that the Commission had decided to award Smartmatic-TIM a 1.7 billion peso contract to lease 23,000OMR counting machines.^[23] Days later, the Commission declared the bidding for the refurbishing 80,000 machines as a failure, after two of the three bidders backed out, while the third was disqualified.^[24]

On August 13, the Commission agreed to lease 94,000 new OMR machines for 7.9 billion pesos, while the old machines used for 2010 and 2013 elections would be used for the 2019 elections.^[25]

By September, the Commission sought the transfer the site manufacturing the voting machines fromChina toTaiwan after it received intelligence reports from the military in July that China might sabotage the elections. Smartmatic, the manufacturer of the machines, acquiesced to the request. China, meanwhile, denied any plans of sabotaging the election, calling it "sheer fabrication."^[26] Smartmatic also won the contract worth P500 million for the electronic results transmission services of the voting machines.^[27]

On March 4, the Commission unanimously voted to disallow the issuance of voting receipt to voters, although onscreen verification was allowed, which would take an additional 15 seconds per voter.^[28]

The Commission eventually aborted mall voting and allowed the use of replacement ballots.^[29]

Election authorities, with the help of election services providerSmartmatic, created aVirtual private network (VPN) for the secure and reliable transmission of electoral data. To guarantee nationwide coverage, Smartmatic coordinated the main telecom companies in the Philippines.

This VPN was used to transmit the votes of over 44 million citizens from 36.805 polling centres. On election night, 4 hours after the polls closed, 80% vote counting machines had transmitted the election data, setting a new record for the Philippines.^[30]

Speed was one of the main reasons why Philippine authorities decided to automate elections. As an archipelago comprising over 7,000 islands, several of which lack a proper communications infrastructure, the transmission of results posed a challenge.

The election gun ban was implemented starting from January 9, 2016, the official start of the 90-day election period. Francisco Pobe, regional director of COMELEC-13, also pointed out that the candidate should not bring bodyguards without gun ban exemption.^[31] Go Act, a pro-gun group formed by gun owners filed a petition before the Supreme Court to fully stop the implementation of the election gun ban.^[32]

On August 18, 2015, the commission released the calendar of activities for the May 9, 2016 national and local elections:^[33]

Following a request by theCentrist Democratic Party of the Philippines, the commission extended the period for holding political conventions to October 8, 2015.^[34] The commission did not extend the deadline of filing of candidacies, though.^[35]

The commission originally envisioned to release an "almost" final list of candidates on December 15, but postponed it to December 23.^[36] The commission did release a "final list" of vice presidential candidates on December 23, but ChairmanAndres D. Bautista that disqualification cases on other positions led them to postpone the release to January 20, when the commission is expected to resolve all disqualification cases.^[37]

On January 21, the commission released an "initial" list of candidates for all positions. The list is subject to trimming as the disqualification cases on presidential, vice presidential and senatorial cases are to be resolved with finality.^[38]

The Commission on Elections held three debates for presidential candidates—in Mindanao last February 2016, in Visayas last March 2016, and in Luzon last April 2016. A vice-presidential debate was also held in Metro Manila last April 10, 2016.^[39]

The commission identified the media entities who had covered the debates:GMA Network (E16: Eleksyon 2016) andPhilippine Daily Inquirer (February 21),TV5 (Bilang Pilipino: Boto sa Pagbabago 2016 – English: As a Filipino: Vote for Change 2016) andPhilippine Star (March 20),CNN Philippines (The Filipino Votes),Business Mirror, andRappler (April 10), andABS-CBN (Halalan 2016: Ipanalo ang Pamilyang Pilipino – English: Election 2016: Winning the Filipino Family) andManila Bulletin (April 24).^[40]

The commission also encouraged non-governmental organizations to hold debates for Senate and local positions.

The COMELEC named theLiberal Party (LP / Liberal) as the dominant majority party, theUnited Nationalist Alliance as the dominant minority party, and the following as major political parties:^[41]

• Nacionalista Party (Nacionalista)
• Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC)
• PDP–Laban
• Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL)
• Lakas–CMD (Lakas)
• Aksyon Demokratiko (Aksyon)
• National Unity Party (NUP)

Rodrigo Duterte ofPDP–Laban andLeni Robredo of theLiberal Party won the presidential and vice presidential elections, respectively. The Liberals also won a plurality of seats in both houses ofCongress, but several of the Liberal Party members of theHouse of Representatives jumped ship to Duterte's PDP–Laban, allowing his party to create asupermajority coalition that putPantaleon Alvarez into the Speakership. The Senate leadership was ultimately won by PDP–Laban'sKoko Pimentel, with the Liberals ultimately comprising the minority bloc there. The election of Alvarez and Pimentel meant that PDP–Laban currently holds three of the four elected highest political offices, for the first time since 1986 when theKilusang Bagong Lipunan held the offices of the presidency, vice presidency, parliamentary speaker and prime minister.

The winner of the presidential election succeededPresidentBenigno Aquino III, who was term limited. A separate election was held to determine theVice Presidency;Jejomar Binay could have defended the vice presidency, but ran for president instead. Both elections were under the plurality voting system.

12 seats of theSenate of the Philippines were up for election. The Philippines usesplurality-at-large voting to determine the winning candidates. With the country as oneat-large "district", the twelve candidates with the highest number of votes joined the winners of the 2013 election in the Senate.

All seats of the House of Representatives were up for election. There are two types of representatives: the district representatives, 80% of the members, were elected in the differentlegislative districts via theplurality system; each district elected one representative. The party-list representatives were elected viaclosed lists, with the parties having at least 2% of the vote winning at least one seat, and no party winning more than three seats. If the winning candidates don't surpass 20% of the members, other parties that got less than 2% of the national vote will get one seat each until all party-lists have been filled up.

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Liberal Party	15,552,401	41.72	+4.16	115	+6
	Nationalist People's Coalition	6,350,310	17.04	−0.04	42	0
	National Unity Party	3,604,266	9.67	+1.12	23	−1
	Nacionalista Party	3,512,975	9.42	+1.01	24	+6
	United Nationalist Alliance	2,468,335	6.62	−4.55	11	+3
	PDP–Laban	706,407	1.90	+0.90	3	New
	Lakas–CMD	573,843	1.54	−3.70	4	−10
	Aksyon Demokratiko	514,612	1.38	+1.03	1	New
	Kilusang Bagong Lipunan	198,754	0.53	+0.19	0	−1
	Asenso Manileño	184,602	0.50	New	2	New
	Kusog Baryohanon	172,601	0.46	New	1	New
	Partido Tinig ng Masa	145,417	0.39	New	1	New
	People's Champ Movement	142,307	0.38	New	1	New
	Bukidnon Paglaum	129,678	0.35	−0.01	1	0
	Lingap Lugud	127,762	0.34	New	1	New
	Padayon Pilipino	127,759	0.34	New	0	0
	One Cebu	114,732	0.31	+0.23	0	0
	Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino	111,086	0.30	−0.02	2	0
	Arangkada San Joseño	83,945	0.23	New	1	New
	Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino	78,020	0.21	−0.30	0	0
	Kabalikat ng Bayan sa Kaunlaran	72,130	0.19	−0.15	1	0
	Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod	53,186	0.14	−0.09	0	0
	Sulong Zambales	52,415	0.14	−0.07	0	0
	Centrist Democratic Party of the Philippines	13,662	0.04	−0.20	0	−1
	Partido ng Manggagawa at Magsasaka	7,239	0.02	−0.02	0	0
	Philippine Green Republican Party	4,426	0.01	New	0	0
	Independent	2,172,562	5.83	−0.09	4	−2
Party-list seats					59	0
Total		37,275,432	100.00	–	297	+4
Valid votes		37,275,432	83.97	+13.95
Invalid/blank votes		7,116,943	16.03	−13.95
Total votes		44,549,848	–	–
Registered voters/turnout		54,363,844	81.95	+4.48
Source: COMELEC(Seats won),(Turnout and electorate)

Local elections were held in all provinces, cities and municipalities. Executive posts were elected by the plurality system, while elections for the membership of the local legislatures were byplurality-at-large voting.

EachSangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial board) has threeex officio members, while eachSangguniang Panlungsod (city council) andSangguniang Bayan (municipal council) has two. The federation presidents each ofLiga ng mga Barangay (barangay chairmen),Sangguniang Kabataan (youth council chairmen), and forSangguniang Panlalawigan, the chapter presidents of theSangguniang Bayan andSangguniang Panlungsod (city and municipal councilors). Theex officiopresiding officer of each local legislature is the chief executive's deputy, but that person onlyvotes to break ties.

The federation presidents of the Liga ng mga Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan were elected from the membership who won in the2013 elections until December 2017, when they were replaced by appointees of the president, who voted among themselves who shall represent them. Abarangay election, originally scheduled for October 2016, is postponed until 2018, to replace these appointees starting in December 2018.

Some legislatures have onereserved seat forindigenous peoples. These have three year terms, and selections are usually not synchronized with local and barangay elections. These are not included in the totals below.

• Presidential transition of Rodrigo Duterte
• Philippine barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan election, 2018, originally scheduled to be held in 2016, but was postponed twice to 2018.

• 2016 Philippine general election
• 2016 elections in the Philippines
• General elections in the Philippines

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