FACT CHECK: Controversial Lawyer Claimed Marcos Sr. Won The 1986 Snap Elections

Claim: Controversial lawyer Ferdinand Topacio stated in his radio program that civic poll watchdog National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) declared the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. as the winner of the Feb. 7, 1986 snap elections.

In his “Yes…Yes…Yo! Topacio” program that aired over dwIZ on Feb. 24, the lawyer downplayed the gains of the 1986 people power revolution and called it a “power grab” by the late democracy icon Corazon “Cory” Aquino. 

Topacio made the pronouncements on the eve of the country’s commemoration of the 1986 EDSA people power revolution, adding that it should not have been declared an official holiday. He believed it was Marcos Sr. who won the snap elections allegedly based on Namfrel results.

“Ang daming na-brainwash nitong (So many got brainwashed by the) ‘yellow’ narrative. Sentimental noon ang mga Pilipino plus nagamitan ng (Filipinos were very sentimental back then plus there was) propaganda,” he said.

Topacio was denying outright the series of civilian-led protests along EDSA following the Feb. 7, 1986 snap elections, which was marred by widespread reports of violence and fraud, citing the supposed role of Namfrel in the pivotal polling exercise.

“Bagama’t nag-snap election at ang nanalo sa snap election ay walang iba kundi si Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos, ayaw nila tanggapin ‘yon. May pandaraya daw, may nag-walk out pa. Ang Namfrel mismo ang nag-ta-tally… na nananalo si Marcos (There was snap election, and the winner of that snap election was no less than President Ferdinand Marcos, but they did not want to accept that. They said there was fraud and some even walked out. But Namfrel itself was tallying the votes and Marcos won),” he claimed.
“Sabi nila, talo raw si Marcos, ngunit nandaya. Kaya kumuha sila ng isang milyong tao, dinala nila sa EDSA. Kung nasunod lang sana si (former military chief Fabian) Ver pinagbabagsakan sila ng bomba eh. Pero ayaw ni Marcos, umalis na lang siya, kaya nag-takeover si Cory (They said Marcos lost but he cheated. So, they took one million people out and brought them to EDSA. If [former military chief Fabian] Ver had his way, bombs would have been dropped over them. But Marcos did not want it, so he just left, that’s why Cory took over),” Topacio added.

Rating: False

Facts: Topacio’s claim that Marcos won the 1986 snap elections, and that Aquino took over in a power grab after people power, were against the facts recorded and which shaped the country’s history. Millions gathered on EDSA to oust the dictator during the four-day uprising from Feb. 22 until Feb. 25 in 1986.

Marcos Sr. fled from Malacañang and went on an exile with his family to Hawaii after Filipinos learned about evidence of his supporters tampering with the official results of the snap elections. Namfrel is the citizen arm of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) tasked with guarding the sanctity of the ballot.

At least 500,000 volunteers were trained to count the ballot for the 1986 snap elections through the tabulation program “Operation Quick Count,” according to a 1988 journal article written by professor Ralph Goldman of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDIIA) and Namfrel external affairs executive director Henrietta Pascual.

Namfrel was in the citizen’s mind the “Bantay ng Bayan” or the guardians of the national count. The NDIIA and the National Republican Institute for International Affairs sent a delegation to observe the conduct of the snap elections, which took into account attempts to manipulate the results in favor of Marcos Sr.

In their report, the delegation noted the statistical improbability of zero votes for Aquino and a 100 percent turnout for Marcos Sr. in some precincts. A copy of the delegation report is available on the USAID website.

The poll observers also noted discrepancies between the Namfrel and Comelec counts due to reported election tampering, voters’ disenfranchisement, and the inclusion of so-called “ghost precincts.” Given the widespread fraud, the delegation concluded that the Namfrel count, covering 70 percent of precincts, was the “most reliable indicator of the popular will of the Filipino people as based on the February 7 election.”

The walkout of 35 Comelec computer operators and employees from the national tabulation center on Feb. 9, 1986, to protest the discrepancy between the processed data and the numbers on the public tally board, also cast doubt on the official count.

“On the night of the 9th, we noticed the discrepancy again. We started writing down what was written on the board and making extra copies for ourselves. Since we couldn’t group together, we used our dinner breaks to talk about what was happening,” wrote Mina Fajardo Bergara, one of the IT specialists who joined the walkout, in an interview with Esquire magazine on Sept. 23, 2016.

“On the next run, when the discrepancies continued on, we went to a room and narrated the whole incident to our bosses, Shiony Binamira and Linda Kapunan. They asked someone higher than them about what was happening – but no one could explain the discrepancies. At that point, we decided that we didn’t want to be a part of this, whatever was happening, we didn’t want all our efforts to create honest, right programs to go into waste. So, the decision was to go home,” she added.

Amid the widespread fraud, Namfrel published a statement in the major newspapers – The Manila Times, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Malaya – declaring Aquino as the winner of the 1986 snap elections. The statement was published in the major dailies on Feb. 25 and 26, 1986 just as people power booted Marcos Sr. out of Malacañang.

Historian Kristoffer Pasion posted on Twitter the Namfrel statement, which declared Aquino as the winner of the February 7, 1986 snap elections with 7,835,070 votes against Marcos, Sr.’s 7,053,068. The Namfrel count covered 60,211 precincts or 70 percent of total voter turnout.

“NAMFREL believes that the results of the national canvassing by the Batasang Pambansa of the February 7, 1986 presidential election does not reflect the real vote of the Filipino people,” read the statement signed by then Namfrel’s national chairman Jose Concepcion, Jr. and secretary-general Christian Monsod.

Why it matters: Topacio is known for spewing anti-Aquino tirades. He is also also a proud Marcos supporter. In his radio program, he divulged that he was named “Ferdinand” after because he was born on the day of the 1965 presidential elections, which Marcos Sr. won for his first term as president.

Topacio’s statement Marcos winning the Namfrel count was broadcasted over radio and dwIZ has over 281,000 followers on Facebook where the program was streamed live and reached 2,500 views. His pronouncements were also posted on dwIZ’s Twitter account, which has over 11,400 followers.

References:

Mina Fajardo Bergara of the COMELEC 35 https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/what-ive-learned/mina-fajardo-bergara-comelec-35-a1575-20160923-lfrm2

Government tabulators of the Philippine presidential election results walked... https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/02/09/Government-tabulators-of-the-Philippine-presidential-election-results-walked/2994508309200/

Namfrel History https://namfrel.com.ph/aboutus/history.htm

National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the National Republican Institute for International Affairs. “A Path to Democratic Renewal”: A report on the Feb. 7, 1986 presidential election in the Philippines https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABK494.pdf

Chronology of a Revolution http://edsarevolution.com/chronology/

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