Go, Dela Rosa top Senate elections in 1st online voting in Canada
The Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver closes overseas online voting for the 2025 national and local elections. Photo from PCG Vancouver
VANCOUVER – Senatorial candidates and partylist groups allied with detained former President Rodrigo Duterte dominated the elections in the first online voting for Filipinos in Canada.
Eight of the 12 senatorial candidates who made it to the winning circle are staunch supporters of Duterte or belong to PDP-Laban, the political party chaired by the former president, based on election results from five clustered precincts across Canada. These include two precincts within the jurisdiction of the Philippine Embassy in Ottawa and precincts in Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver.
Voter turnout for the 2025 midterm elections, though higher than the turnout in the United States, was significantly lower compared to previous elections.
Out of 67,873 registered voters, only 7,912 or 11.66 percent voted, much lower than the 35.05 percent turnout in the 2022 elections.
Duterte’s former aide and reelectionist Christopher “Bong” Go topped the senatorial race for voters in Canada with 3,977 votes, followed by former Philippine National Police Chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Sagip Partylist Rep. Rodante Marcoleta.
Opposition candidates and former Senators Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino and Francisco “Kiko” Pangilinan ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.
Heidi Mendoza, former commissioner of the Commission on Audit, had the eighth highest votes, while former senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson placed 10th.
The other Duterte allies in the top 12 included: Jimmy Bondoc (6th), Vic Rodriguez (7th), Raul Lambino (9th), Jayvee Hinlo (11th) and actor Phillip Salvador (12th).
Duterte, who has been detained since March this year at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity, won by a landslide in the mayoralty race in Davao, a stronghold of his family. His son and Davao Mayor Sebaste “Baste” Duterte also won by a landslide as vice mayor.
Partylists identified with the former president also topped the elections among voters in Canada.
Duterte Youth had the highest votes for partylists with 1,492 votes. Epanaw Sambayanan ranked fourth with 356 votes.
The other partylists in the top 10 include Akbayan (722 votes), Mamamayang Liberal (678), ACT-CIS (246), Gabriela (211), OFW (204), CIBAC (193), PBBM (154) and Senior Citizens (138).
Filipino groups in Canada had earlier raised concerns over voter disenfranchisement, saying that many migrants and migrant workers were unable to register in Canada and were also unaware that voting was going to be online. Other registered voters were unable to enroll for online voting, they said.
In a joint statement, the Canada chapters of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Migrante and Anakbayan said many overseas voters “faced barriers and voting errors while casting their votes, and the vast majority have decided not to vote or been unable to vote because of the many barriers.”
“The inaccessibility of voting has clearly limited the voice of overseas voters in the Philippine senate and congress,” they said.
The groups also said that before the elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Philippine consulates “failed to adequately inform voters about the new system of online voting and registration deadlines, which has contributed to the low voter turnout.”
“Only a small fraction of registered voters were able to pre-enrol for online voting,” they said.
The Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver conducted online and in-person voters’ education sessions leading to the elections, aside from posting information on its website and social media pages.
But many voters said the information dissemination was inadequate and the outreach to Filipino communities was ineffective.
