Presidential and vice presidential elections were held in the Philippines on May 10, 2004. The incumbent president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and incumbent Senator Noli de Castro defeated the film actor Fernando Poe Jr. and incumbent Senator Loren Legarda, respectively.

Under the Philippine constitution, presidents are restricted to a single six-year term, but can be eligible for re-election if they have served less than four years in office. Arroyo succeeded President Joseph Estrada in 2001 after Estrada was removed from office. At the time of the election, she had served as President three years, therefore making her eligible for re-election.

This election was also held at a period in modern Philippine history marked by serious political polarization, resulting in less candidates for the presidency and vice presidency compared to the preceding two elections. Arroyo served as vice president under her predecessor, Joseph Estrada, and ascended to the presidency after Estrada resigned after being impeached with charges of plunder and corruption in 2000. As Arroyo was not elected to the presidency, she was eligible for election to a full term under the 1987 Constitution. Despite initially declaring that she would not run in 2004, Arroyo later launched a bid for the presidency, becoming the first president since the People Power Revolution in 1986 to run for a second term. Poe Jr. emerged as her leading opponent, owing to his populist platform and popularity with the working class.

Arroyo and de Castro became the first presidential ticket to win together since 1986; this feat would not be repeated until 2022, when Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte won together as part of the UniTeam ticket.

This election first saw the implementation of the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003, which enabled Filipinos in over 70 countries to vote.

Background The political climate leading up to the 2004 elections was one of the most emotional in the country's history since the 1986 elections that resulted in the exile of Ferdinand Marcos. Philippine society has become polarized between the followers of former president Joseph Estrada who have thrown their support for Estrada's close associate Fernando Poe, Jr. and those who support incumbent Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, or at best oppose Estrada.

The several months leading to the May elections saw several presidential scandals, Arroyo reversing her earlier decision not to run for president, the sudden but not unexpected candidacy of Fernando Poe, Jr., defection of key political figures from the Arroyo camp to the opposition, the controversial automated elections initiative of the COMELEC, and the split of the dominant opposition party, Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, between Poe and Panfilo Lacson.

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's candidacy

On a speech given on Rizal Day, December 30, 2002, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared that she would not run in the 2004 elections. She said that withdrawing from the race would relieve her of the burden of politics and allow her administration to devote the last year and half to strengthening the economy healing the deep divisions within Philippine society, and working for clean and honest elections in 2004.

However, on October 4, 2003, Arroyo said that she would seek a full-term presidency, saying that her change of heart was for a higher cause, and that she could not ignore the call to further serve the country.

Fernando Poe, Jr.'s candidacy

Months before the elections, members of the opposition were encouraging actor Fernando Poe, Jr., a close friend of former president Joseph Estrada to run for president. Poe was very popular with the masses and it was widely believed that he would be a sure winner if he ran for president.

On November 27, 2003, Poe announced during a press conference held at the Manila Hotel that he would run for president.

However, on January 9, 2004, Victorino X. Fornier (a private citizen) filed a case against Poe and the COMELEC, saying that Poe was not eligible to run as he was not a natural-born Filipino before the COMELEC. On January 23, the COMELEC dismissed the petition for lack of merit. On February 10, Fornier finally filed the case to the Supreme Court, seeking for Poe to be disqualified from the race. His case was later merged with cases filed by Maria Jeanette C. Tecson, and Felix B. Desiderio, Jr., and by Zoilo Antonio G. Velez.

Death of Lawyer Maria Jeanette Tecson

On September 28, 2007, 8:30 p.m, Senior Superintendent Francisco Uyami, Pasig police chief stated that lawyer Maria Tecson, 40, had been found dead (in a state of rigor mortis) inside room 204 at the Richmond Hotel, San Miguel Avenue, Pasig (with her throat slit and with cuts on her wrist). Maria Jeanette Tecson, Zoilo Velez (promoted to Court of Appeals Justice) and Victorino Fornier filed the disqualification case against Fernando Poe, Jr. She claimed Poe was born out of wedlock, and that while Poe's birth certificate was dated 1939, his parents Allan Poe and American mother Bessie Kelly did not marry until 1940.

On March 3, the Supreme Court, said in its decisionSupreme Court's decision. that for lack of jurisdiction and prematurity, and ruling that Poe's father, Allan F. Poe would have been a Filipino citizen by virtue of the en masse Filipinization enacted by the Philippine Bill of 1902. Also, even if Poe had not been a natural-born Filipino citizen, he could not be held guilty of having made a material misrepresentation in his certificate of candidacy.

Eddie Gil's candidacy The Commission on Elections originally affirmed the candidacies of six people for the president. The sixth person running for president was Eduardo "Eddie" Gil. The party of Eduardo Villanueva filed a petition with the COMELEC seeking to disqualify Eddie Gil on the basis of him being a nuisance candidate, his incapacity to mount a nationwide campaign, and that because he was running with the aim to confuse voters because of their similar names.

Eddie Gil claims to be an international banker having a net worth of billions of dollars. His platform for presidency promised to make every Filipino a millionaire within his first 100 days of being elected. He also promised to pay off the Philippines' debt, worth trillions of pesos, from his own pocket. This was widely ridiculed, especially after a recent incident in which a check he had issued to pay his hotel bills during a campaign sortie, bounced.

The LDP split and Lacson's campaign

The Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino party (LDP) would form the core of the main opposition party, the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP). However, members of the party disagreed on which person to support for president. Panfilo Lacson, a member of the party, advanced his candidacy for president but was not considered by Edgardo Angara, the president of the party. Angara supported Fernando Poe, Jr. Together with the party's secretary-general Agapito "Butz" Aquino, Lacson gathered the support of some members of the party and went ahead with his candidacy. The LDP was subsequently polarized between those supporting Angara and Poe, and those for Lacson and Aquino.

By then, Poe and Lacson have both filed their certificates of candidacies for president. According to the rules of candidacy, every presidential candidate must have a political party to back him or her. With the obvious split within the ranks of the LDP, and with no signs that the two factions would come to an agreement, the COMELEC decided to informally split the party into the Aquino and the Angara wings. Lacson then ran under the LDP - Aquino Wing, and Poe under the LDP - Angara Wing, which would later become the KNP.

Before and during the campaign period, there had been numerous unification talks between the two factions. The opposition saw the need to become united under one banner to boost their chances of winning the presidential election against the organized political machinery of Arroyo. The plans of unification did not materialize due to the stubbornness of both Poe and Lacson. Lacson wanted Poe to concede to him and run as his vice-presidential candidate while the supporters of Poe wanted Lacson to back out from his candidacy and instead support Poe, citing his low performance in the surveys.

COMELEC's move for an automated elections Elections in the Philippines have always been a manual process with the results for national positions often being announced more than a month after election day. An attempt to rectify this was done by the Commission on Elections by automating the process of counting the votes. More than 30 billion pesos were spent in acquiring counting machines that were never used in this elections because of numerous controversies and political opposition.

Parties and coalitions This election has seen strong shifts of alliances and new parties as candidates switched allegiances. The two major coalitions seen in this elections were the K-4 (Koalisyon ng Katapatan at Karanasan sa Kinabukasan), of the administration, and the KNP (Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino), the united opposition.

Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) The Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (Coalition of United Filipinos), or KNP, is the coalition of the united opposition. Its standard bearers are Fernando Poe, Jr. for president and Sen. Loren Legarda for vice-president. The leading parties of this coalition is the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP-Angara Wing), the PDP–Laban and the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino. the LDP split is caused by stubbornness between FPJ and Ping Lacson, especially with the support of the former president Joseph Estrada and former first lady Imelda Marcos. The other major party under this coalition is Estrada's Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP, Party of the Filipino Masses).

Alyansa ng Pag-asa

The third major coalition running in this election is the Alyansa ng Pag-asa (Alliance of Hope), This coalition fielded Raul Roco for president and Herminio Aquino for vice-president. The three major parties supporting this coalition are Roco's Aksyon Demokratiko (Democratic Action), former Defense Sec. Renato de Villa's Reporma Party, and Lito Osmeña's Promdi (Probinsya Muna [Provinces First] Development Party). The three parties were the ones that bolted out of the People Power Coalition.

Bangon Pilipinas Movement (BPM) The Bangon Pilipinas (Rise up, Philippines) Movement is the political party of Bro. Eddie Villanueva. It consists mostly of volunteers, a majority of whom came from Villanueva's Jesus Is Lord church (Villanueva resigned from the church before submitting his candidacy, to prevent questions on separation of church and state).

Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP – Aquino wing) A faction named after the party's secretary-general Butz Aquino, this was composed of Panfilo Lacson's supporters in the LDP Party.

Partido Isang Bansa, Isang Diwa This was Eddie Gil's organization. Gil was deemed a nuisance candidate and was disqualified from the presidential race, however, the party qualified for other positions.

Endorsements

Organizations and some volunteers On January 29, 2004, PRO-GLORIA for Progressive and Responsible Organizations for Good Leadership, Outstanding Reforms and Intelligent Actions pledged to Arroyo for mobilizing members to boost Arroyo's campaign and K-4 by parallel method. Also, Bigkis Pinoy, Lakas Pinoy, Kalipi, Aguman ng Kapampangan, Kaisahan ng Mamamayan para sa Bayan (Kaisambayan), Kaibigan ng OFW, the National Confederation of Tricycle Operators and Drivers Association, United Filipino Seafarers, the Muslim Peace and Order Council for Metro Manila, and youth groups E-Gloria and Team Gloria joined Arroyo.

Religious endorsements