‘…the Leni-Kiko camp would need more than able-bodied volunteers to guard the ballot and prevent any computer glitch that could lead to massive fraud.’
AN elderly couple who attended the huge Leni-Kiko rally on Emerald Ave. who could not get a bus ride on Ortigas EDSA was given a free ride by a younger couple. Behind the car, many others had stopped doing the same thing, igniting a touching episode of going out of one’s way to help tired people get home.
Volunteerism has become a major key in the mobilization of thousands in the Leni-Kiko rallies, triggering a nearly widespread, rapidly mounting response of more and more people coming together. But the Leni-Kiko camp would need more than able-bodied volunteers to guard the ballot and prevent any computer glitch that could lead to massive fraud.
From the highly esteemed journalist Marites Danguilan Vitug: “When I watch videos of Leni-Kiko rallies and see some participants giving away pan de sal, bottles of water, treating each other with kindness, immersing themselves in an atmosphere of togetherness. I ask myself, ‘Where is this coming from?’ Apart from the inspiration of VP Leni, it looks like a manifestation of a liberation from almost 6 years of uncivil and lacerating leadership, from curse-laden talk, from vile threats, from a Malacanang-directed polarization.”
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Practically nothing is heard from the PNP leadership on renewed efforts to guard the ballot through the prevention of vote-buying and the arrest of vote-buyers. Election watchdogs are dismayed that very few have been arrested and prosecuted for vote-buying during the past numerous elections.
The rival camps of Mayor Joy Belmonte and Bingbong Crisologo in Quezon City charged each other of vote-buying after the police swooped down on a private building where Crisologo was allegedly giving away money to voters. This was during the 2019 local elections. Belmonte’s camp was also allegedly involved in vote-buying incidents. After a protracted series of police probes, nothing had come out of both cases.
