Voters’ profile: Nearly half are unemployed

 

The 'millennial vote' 

 

Ateneo School of Government Dean Antonio La Viña said the voting-age population comprise “very clearly a youth vote.” 

 

“Millennials,” those born between 1980 and the early 2000s, will comprise a big chunk of voters in 2016 if the 2010 census data will be the jumping-off point. 

 

“Millennial” voters will be 18 to 36 years old by 2016. 

 

The Philippine population pyramid has a base indicating a bigger young population that gradually tapers to the older age groups. 

 

Based on the 2010 census age cluster, 14.2 million of Filipinos who were eligible to vote in 2010 were aged 25 to 34 years old. 

 

The youngest eligible voters—aged 18 to 24—made up almost 22 percent of the voting-age population in 2010. 

 

Combined, these age groups were 47 percent of the voting-age pool, equivalent to 26.4 million people,  in the last presidential elections. 

 

“Ang pinaka-importante dito ay iyong youth vote, very clearly it is a youth vote.... Half of our voters are millennials. This means they are connected to the internet, they can be persuaded to be idealistic if they find a candidate that can inspire them,” La Viña said. 

 

But Comelec Commissioner Luie Tito Guia believes the youth have adopted the “pervasive cynicism” toward elections and the government.

 

“The youth used to evince the hope that elections will produce better leaders. The assumption is that they will not succumb to vote buying,” de Guia said. 

 

“The problem now, however, is that the youth, as a sector, seems to be apathetic and will not likely have deep involvement in the advocacy of social and political reform and good governance,” he added. 

 

Adults aged 35 to 44 had the third biggest share of the 2010 voting-age population at 11.5 million. Middle-aged Filipinos number 8.6 million. There were 9.2 million early retirees and senior citizens among voting-age Filipinos in 2010.

 

8 in 10 are Catholics 

 

Some 45.3 million Filipinos or 82 percent of the 2010 voting-age population belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. 

 

Some 2.6 million or 5 percent of Filipinos eligible to vote in 2010 were Muslims.

 

The Iglesia ni Cristo and the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches each had around 1.4 million members of voting age in 2010. 

 

Tiquia said the big percentage of Catholics among voting-age Filipinos is irrelevant because there is no “Catholic vote.”

 

“If it were, candidates with questionable or compromised backgrounds would not have seen the light of day in the country. The fact that dynasties rule in some areas and old political names make it at the national level in a Catholic country does not speak well of the religious influence and religious nurturing that tend to be the basis of voter preference. It is oxymoronic at best,” Tiquia said. 

 

La Viña said Catholics do not vote as a group unlike the bloc-voting Iglesia ni Cristo.

 

 “The ones that matter for religion (is) INC. (They have) 1.3 million. Makikita mo, INC matters in a close election,” he said. 

 

The Catholic voting population includes such Catholic charismatic groups as El Shaddai, which claims to have 8 million members.

 

El Shaddai did not endorse candidates for president and vice president in the 2010 elections. In the 2013 elections, the group endorsed six "pro-life" senatorial candidates who had voted against the Reproductive Health Law. Five made it to the Top 12. 

 

INC endorsed President Aquino for President and DILG Secretary Mar Roxas for vice president in the 2010 polls. In 2013, INC reportedly chose to support seven Team PNoy and five United Nationalist Alliance candidates. Ten out of the 12 won. 

 

Another politicized religious group, Jesus is Lord Movement of Brother Eddie Villanueva, had 124,000 members based on the 2010 census. Claiming the support of millions of JIL members, Villanueva ran for president in 2010 but lost. He also lost in the 2013 senatorial elections. 

 

La Viña said JIL obviously does not vote as a bloc.

 

“The total votes of Eddie Villanueva do not even equal what their block is supposed to be,” he said.

 

La Viña said Muslims are important, too, because they are clustered in a region. The Bangsamoro Basic Law, now undergoing deliberations in Congress, is a deciding factor among Muslims. 

 

“Having a candidate who’s anti-BBL might lose some Muslim votes but not necessarily gain votes of others in the presidential elections. Kapag senatorial, iba na. I think Muslims tend to vote against those who are deemed to be anti-Muslim,” La Viña said.

 

Half male, half female

 

Taken as a whole, the voting-age population in 2010 is almost evenly divided in terms of gender. 

 

By age clusters, however, there are more eligible male voters in the younger age groups 18 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to 44 and 45 to 54. 

 

Females control the age groups 55 years old and above. 

 

The biggest disparity in the male-female ratio is in the 65 and up age group: 58 percent of this cluster is female.  

“Wala tayong women’s vote or feminine vote. Pero wala ring anti-women vote. Actually, very fair ang Filipinos in terms of gender sa voting. It’s the reason why we have many women senators, candidates. Si GMA (former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) is an example,” La Viña said. 

 

More than half married 

 

More than 32 million or 58 percent of the voting-age population in 2010 were married. Another seven percent or almost four million had common-law or live-in partners. 

 

Some 27 percent of Filipinos aged 18 and above were single. This translated to more than 15 million people.