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VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Jinggoy Estrada’s remark that Marcos Jr. got ‘highest number of votes in PH history’ needs context

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. got the highest number of votes in Philippine history.

Needs context

While Marcos Jr. did receive the highest number of votes in Philippine history, his win in the May 2022 polls is only the third highest margin of victory. The 31 million votes Marcos got translates to only 58.7% of the 53.8 million votes cast.
Former presidents Ramon Magsaysay and Manuel Quezon earned 68.9% and 67.9% of the votes in the 1953 and 1935 elections, respectively.

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. received the highest number of votes in Philippine history in the May 2022 elections, hence the public should “move on” from Martial Law.

This needs context.

Marcos Jr. made a similar claim during his inaugural speech on June 30. (Read VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Marcos Jr’s ‘biggest electoral mandate’ statement needs context)

As of May 2020, the Philippine Statistics Authority recorded the country’s population at 109 million, of which 65,745,526 were registered to vote in the 2022 polls. (Read VERA FILES FACT SHEET: The Filipino vote in May 2022)

 

Editor’s note: This fact check was updated on Sept. 27, 2022 to include the video fact check.

 

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Sources

Jinggoy Estrada official Facebook page, Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada Press Briefing (Sept. 20, 2022), Sept. 20, 2022

Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, Philippine Electoral Almanac Revised and Expanded (Archived file), 2015

Senate of the Philippines official website, Joint Public Session Resolution No. 1, May 30, 2016

Joint Session of Congress official website, National Canvassing 2022 results, 2022

Philippine Presidency Project, Results of the Past Presidential & Vice-Presidential Elections (archived webpage) accessed on Sept. 21, 2022

Philippine Statistics Authority, Highlights of the Population Density of the Philippines 2020 Census of Population and Housing (2020 CPH), July 23, 2021

Commission on Elections, Number and Turn-Out of Registered Voters and Voters Who Actually Voted by City/Municipality, Aug. 5, 2022

 

(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)