THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has received more than 1,000 reports of vote buying incidents during the May 9 polls, an electoral challenge which it acknowledged has not been sufficiently addressed by the automated election system (AES).
In a press briefing yesterday, Elections acting spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said it received 1,173 vote buying complaints from various channels.
“We’re being more aggressive to address this. Please help us. We are determined and we have the intention to go after these people,” said Laudiangco.
He said 933 complaints were sent via the Facebook page of Task Force Kontra Bigay, 167 through the panel’s email, and 73 through the Comelec law department.
Of the reported incidents, Laudiangco said 12 are already considered as “verified complaints” and which are “now docketed and lodged with the Comelec law department.
The next part here is the setting of preliminary investigation.”
In addition, he said there are 88 incidents that are considered as “valid reports..
“Out of the 88 that we had filtered as being related to vote-buying and vote selling, 49 have submitted their evidence,” said Laudiangco.
Laudiangco reminded complainants of vote buying to submit detailed information and file an affidavit of complaint to hasten the investigation.
“Vote buying is a criminal case. That is why the law itself and the rules require verified complaints,” he stressed.
Under the Omnibus Election Code, vote buying refers to any person who gives, offers, or promises money or anything of value in order to induce anyone to vote for or against any candidate.
Laudiangco said that despite the law, however, vote buying incidents remain as a problem.
“The only thing that remains to be manipulated or vulnerable to it is the one that is still with human factor, and that is vote buying,” said Laudiangco.
He said the problem is of such magnitude that they had to seek help from other government agencies in forming Task Force Kontra Bigay.
“The introduction of the poll automation has failed to solve (vote buying incidents).
It’s a human factor that is the one we’re working on with multiple agencies,” said Laudiangco.
