Comelec has so far received over 30 complaints for vote-buying
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday said it was keeping a close watch on how unscrupulous candidates may be using government cash aid programs as a “novel” method of vote-buying in the run-up to the May 12 polls.
In an interview on state television, Comelec Commissioner Ernesto Ferdinand Maceda Jr. said “one of the newest schemes of vote-buying is the abuse of state resources’’ and that it had become “widespread and brazen because of the numerous social welfare assistance programs of our government.”
According to Maceda, the Comelec’s Kontra Bigay Task Force has so far received 34 complaints for alleged vote-buying and selling, 11 of which involved government resources.
He said the task force expanded its monitoring of election code violations to include “abuse of state resources” in response to such complaints from concerned citizens, mostly in Metro Manila.
“People usually complain how the system seems to [give] an advantage those who are behind these programs, as they are usually seen in photos or fronting for these programs,” he said. “Let us not forget that these assistance programs are due to the government’s policies.”
One of the complaints received by Comelec stemmed from the viral video of one candidate apparently giving away vehicles. Other complaints involved the alleged distribution of cash among people attending campaign rallies.
Comelec received a total of 1,226 complaints in relation to the 2022 elections and 375 complaints in the period leading to the 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) in 2023, Maceda recalled.
E-wallets
Metro Manila remains the “center” of vote-buying activities, based on the number of complaints, followed by the Calabarzon region and the provinces of Palawan, Abra and Camarines Sur.
“I don’t know if that’s because there are more vote-buying incidents happening here or that the citizens are just more aware of their rights and are keen to report it,” he said.
To regulate the use of electronic wallets as a vote-buying platform, Comelec has also been working with operators GCash and Maya since the 2023 BSKE, he added.
“GCash came out with an advisory that it would set transaction limits. I don’t know when they’re going to impose this [for the 2025 elections] because they haven’t released the details, but it will most likely be done as Election Day draws near,” he said.
