by
I. INTRODUCTION
In a democratic country such as the Philippines, leaders who will lead the
country for a fixed number of years are decided by the Filipino voters through an
election. Filipinos are encouraged to register and to vote as an exercise of their
constitutional rights and privileges. For several decades since 1947, starting from
election campaign up to the casting and tallying of votes, Filipino voters are
always involved with high enthusiasm. Thus, describing some characteristics of
Filipino voters such as their geographical distribution, family income and
education would give us a glimpse or a picture of the country’s voting population
Election is defined as the means by which the people choose their officials
for a definite and fixed period of time. Article 5 of the constitution of the
Philippines stated that suffrage may be exercised by all citizens of the
1
A paper presented at the PSA Annual Conference on November 12, 2003, Sulu Hotel, Quezon
City
2
Administrator and Civil Registrar General, National Statistics Office
3
Statistician III, National Statistics Office
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Philippines, not otherwise disqualified by law, who are at least 18 years of age
and who shall have resided in the Philippines for at least one year and in the
place wherein they propose to vote, for at least six months immediately
preceding the election. No literacy, property, or other substantive requirement
shall be imposed on the exercise of suffrage. The Omnibus Election code of the
Philippines states on its general provision that it shall be the obligation of every
citizen qualified to vote to register and cast his vote. Also, the Republic Act No.
8189 or “Voter’s Registration Act of 1996” cites that in order to be able to vote in
any election, a qualified voter shall be registered in the permanent list of voters
in a precinct of the city or municipality wherein he resides. However, persons
disqualified from registering are not allowed to vote such as the following (1)
those who have been sentenced by final judgment to suffer imprisonment of not
less that one (1) year. (2) any person who has been adjudged by final judgment
by a competent court or tribunal of having committed any crime involving
disloyalty to the duly constituted government such as rebellion, sedition, violation
of the firearms laws or any crime against national security and (3)Insane or
incompetent persons declared as such by competent authority. For 2000, the
country’s seven national prisons, registered a total population of 23,695 inmates
or 0.05 percent of 43.3 million voting population.
The Voter’s Absentee Voting Act of 2003 allows all qualified citizens of the
Philippines abroad to vote for president, vice-president, senators and party-list
representatives. However, those who lost their Filipino citizenship in accordance
with Philippine laws and those who have expressly renounced their Philippine
citizenship and who have pledged allegiance to a foreign country are not eligible
to vote.
Types of Elections
In the Philippines, regular elections are held regularly over a period of time
as mandated by the constitution. These are the following:
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6. Plebiscite, Referendum, Initiative and Recall – these are not held on a
regular basis.
Based on the 2000 Census of Population and Housing results (Table 1),
the total population 18 years old and over numbered to 43.3 million persons.
There were slightly more women (50.1 percent) than men (49.9 percent). Of the
16 regions in the Philippines, Region IV or Southern Tagalog had the biggest
voter’s population, with 6.7 million persons accounting for 15.6 percent of the
total. The National Capital Region (NCR) followed with 6.2 million persons or 15
percent. Central Luzon (Region 3) registered the third largest voter’s population
with 4.7 million persons or 10.87 percent of the total. These three regions
comprised 41.36 percent of the total population 18 years old and over. On the
other hand, CAR had the least number of voters with only 764 thousand persons.
For the coming 2004 election, the projected voting population is estimated
at 49.25 million persons (please refer to table 3). This figure is about 60 percent
of the projected 82.67 million Philippine population for 2004. Female voting
population number a little more than the expected male voters with a sex ratio of
98.89 males for every 100 females. There are more male voters in the younger
age groups 20 to 24 and 25 to 29 years old while female voters dominate the
older age groupings 50 years old and over.
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Figure 2. Projected Age-Sex Voting Population Pyramid, Philippines: 2004
A 80 and over
75 to 79
G 70 to 74
E 65 to 69
60 to 64
G 55 to 59
Male Female
R 50 to 54
45 to 49
O 40 to 44
U 35 to 39
p 30 to 34
25 to 29
20 to 24
18 to 19
10 8 6 4 2 0 2 4 6 8 10
Of the 49 million projected voters for 2004, about two thirds (66%) or 33
million have completed some elementary or high school education; 15 percent
are college undergraduates; and only 7 percent are college degree holders. In
addition, there are about 1.6 million voters who have no education.
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The projected voting population literacy rate was observed at 92 percent
or 45.5 million literate voters out of 49.2 million voters for 2004. There is no
significant difference between the literacy rate of women and that of men.
Marital Status
Of the 49.2 million projected voters for 2004, 60 percent or 29.4 million are
legally married while voters with single marital status share 27 percent or 13.5
million of the total.
Table A. Total Population 18 years and over by Marital Status and Sex: 2004
Marital Status Total Percent Male Percent Female Percent
Total 49,247,483 100.00 24,457,103 49.66 24,790,380 50.34
Single 13,538,332 27.49 7,449,405 55.02 6,088,927 44.98
Legally married 29,364,907 59.63 14,691,577 50.03 14,673,330 49.97
Widowed 2,657,992 5.40 642,821 24.18 2,015,171 75.82
Divorced/separated 624,509 1.27 226,243 36.23 398,266 63.77
Common-law/live-
in 2,665,392 5.41 1,364,539 51.19 1,300,853 48.81
Not reported 396,350 0.80 196,499 49.58 199,851 50.42
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Employment
As of April 2003, the voting population who were members of the labor
force was estimated at 32.7 million. Of this, 61 percent or 19.9 million were males
while the remaining 12.8 million were females. Employed male voters registered
at 17.7 million were more in numbers than the 11.3 million female voters. This
observation was also true for the employment rate posted at 89 percent for male
as compared with the smaller 88.4 percent for females. Employment rate for the
total voting population was computed at 88.8 percent. Of the 32.7 million voters
in the labor force, 3.7 million were unemployed resulting to 11.2 percent
unemployment rate. Higher occurrence of unemployed female voters was also
noted in April 2003 having a larger 11.6 percent unemployment rate as compared
to 11 percent unemployed male voters.
Population 18
Years Old and Over
45,809,054
Employed Unemployed
29,042,924 3,678,644
(88.76%) (11.24%)
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Table B. Employed Voters by Type of Occupation in The Philippines: April 2003
There were 4,639 households headed by a person less than 18 years old.
This number is equivalent to a small 0.03 percent of the total 15 million
households in the Philippines.
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Family Size
The typical family of a Filipino voter had 5 members. The average size of
a family headed by a Filipino voter ranged from 4.8 members in Cagayan Valley
to 5.8 family members in ARMM
Family Income
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Table D. Number of Families, Average Annual Family Income, Average Annual Per Capita
Income and Average Family Size of 18 year old and over household head by Region, 2000
Housing
Results from 2000 CPH observed that of the 15,278,808 housing units in
the country, 15,264,250 housing units were identified to have at least an 18 year
old or over household member. About 15 thousand houses had no Filipino voter
among their occupants.
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V. REGISTERED VOTERS
On the average, there were about 214 voters for each precinct. At 37.7
million voting population in 1995 and 36.4 million registered voters, registration
rate at the national level was a high 96.7 percent.
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Source : Election and Barangay Affairs Department COMELEC
During the 1995 National Election, approximately 25.7 million (71 percent)
of the 36.4 million registered voters actually voted. Across regions, the highest
voter turn-out percentage was noted in Ilocos Region at 79 percent while the
lowest was registered in the National Capital Region at 57 percent.
Generally, there were more registered male voters than female. However,
in the 1995 national election, more females had actually voted as compared with
the males having a sex ratio of 98.96 males for every 100 females (Table 8-B).
This voting pattern was also true for 6 regions, NCR, Central Luzon, Southern
Tagalog, Bicol, Western Visayas and Central Visayas.
Only 81.2 percent of the population 18 years old and over registered in
July 15, 2002 Barangay Elections. The total number of registered voters was
tallied at 37.9 million persons. Among the regions, Southern Tagalog emerged as
the biggest in terms of number of registered voters with 5.7 million persons
followed by National Capital Region having 5.3 million registered voters. On the
other hand, CAR, comprising 669 thousand registered voters had the least
number.
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Six provinces reported having more than a million registered voters
surpassing a million marks and these were: Cebu (1.71 million), Negros
Occidental (1.25 million) Pangasinan (1.20 million), Bulacan (1.13 million), Cavite
(1.06 million) and Laguna (1.01 million). National Capital Region, comprising 12
cities and 5 municipalities, had 5.3 million registered voters
Notes on SK Voters
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VI. CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Population 18 Years Old and Over by Region : 2000
Number Percent
REGION Total Male Female Total Male Female
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Table 2. Population 15 - 17 Years Old by Region: 2000
Number Percent
Region Total Male Female Total Male Female
Table 3. Projected Voting Population by Age Group, Sex and Sex Ratio: Philippines, 2004
Total
Age Group Population Male Female Sex Ratio
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Table 4. Projected Population 18 Years Old and over by Highest Educational Attainment by Region:
2004
Highest Educational
Attainment Total Percent Male Percent Female Percent
Table 6. Labor Force Summary of Voting Population in the Philippines: April 2003
18 years old and Over
Philippines
Total Male Female
Population 18 years Old and Over 45,809,054 22,771,986 23,037,068
In the Labor Force Population 32,721,568 19,938,228 12,783,339
Employed 29,042,924 17,745,496 11,297,428
Unemployed 3,678,644 2,192,732 1,485,911
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Table 7. Employed Voters by Class of Workers in the Philippines: April 2003
Number Percent
Class or Workers Total Male Female Total Male Female
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Table 8-B. Number of Registered Voters by Sex, by Region
May 8, 1995 National and Local Elections, National Summary
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Table 8-C. Number of Registered Voters Who Actually Voted, Percentage of Voting
and Sex Ratio by Region
May 8, 1995 National and Local Elections, National Summary
Table 8-D. Number of Registered Voters Who Actually Voted and Percentage of
Voting by Sex, by Region
May 8, 1995 National and Local Elections, National Summary
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Table 9. Summary on the Number of Established Precincts,
( As of 04 July 2002 )
Batanes 54 41 8,198
Cagayan 2,928 2,258 443,574
Isabela 3,948 3,104 618,861
Nueva Vizcaya 1,176 867 174,668
Quirino 478 381 75,013
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REGION IV 36,462 28,843 5,733,920
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REGION IX 8,594 7,317 1,409,456
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