Votes sold for up to P15,000; ‘flying voters’ taint midterm polls
COTABATO CITY—Vote-buying has spurred throngs of people into polling centers in Mindanao and in many areas in the Visayas and Luzon, braving the heat in order to cast their vote and “repay” their political patrons.
And at a time when the presence of the so-called “flying voters” was already considered a thing of the past, at least 80 persons, including some minors, were caught before the opening of the voting precincts at 7 a.m. on Monday in Buluan town, the capital of Maguindanao del Sur.
The offer of P1,500 each had spurred the 80 all-male individuals to venture as flying voters into Buluan.
They admitted to authorities they were “hired to participate in the voting” in the town, although they stopped short of naming who paid them.
Money, money, money
Apart from those who came from General Santos City, who were intercepted in Cotabato City just before midnight on Sunday, others came from Sultan Kudarat and Bukidnon provinces. Authorities believed there could have been more of them waiting to enter the town or the province had the initial batch succeeded.
Buluan is under Comelec control in this year’s election due to a series of violent incidents during the campaign period.
Monetary incentives from political camps had fueled a large turnout of voters in polling centers in many other parts of Mindanao, although in some other areas, especially where local contests are not tight, the voter lines thinned by midday.
Across the country, each voter was given as much as P15,000 to vote for a candidate or a party slate, according to reports in the provinces, with numerous voters even flaunting on social media how much they received from their local candidates.
In Pagadian City, the capital of Zamboanga del Sur, malls and restaurants were filled to the brim on Sunday, a direct impact of the vote-buying frenzy from days earlier. The province has 149,477 voters casting their ballots in 179 clustered precincts.
Voters lined up as early as 4 a.m. at Balangasan Elementary School in Pagadian City, even as polling centers opened at 5 a.m. only for persons with disabilities, pregnant women and the elderly.
Votes were being bought by as much as P5,000 per voter for a slate, with the promise of another P5,000 as postvoting incentive, locally known as “backing.”
Voters were rushing to the precincts to be able to avail of a supposed “backing” that expired by midday. Other “backing” schemes were reportedly for the first 200 voters in a precinct.
In a small town in Zamboanga del Sur, votes are being bought for as much as P8,000; and up to P10,000 in Zamboanga del Norte.
In Cagayan de Oro City, the range was from P1,000 and up to P6,000.
In a town in Lanao del Norte, candidates outdid each other, with one dishing out a package of P700 cash and a 25-kilo pack of rice per family, while the other gave out P1,000 plus a 5-kilo pack of rice per voter.
Shameful
In Surigao del Sur, the price ranged from P4,970 to P11,690 to support a certain slate.
“Can we really be proud of this?” Tandag City Bishop Raul Dael asked in a scathing pastoral letter issued last Sunday. “We cannot deny that many felt grateful for the money, but it came at the cost of their sacred vote,” Dael lamented.
In Eastern Visayas, the giving of money, “badil,” as commonly known in the region, ranged from P50 up to P15,000 per voter, depending on the position being sought by a candidate.
In some hotly contested areas in Leyte, there were reports of vote-buying up to P15,000. But in some small towns, the amount reportedly reached up to P2,000.
In one town in Samar, for instance, vote-buying reportedly reached P13,000 per voter on Election Day.
In Central Luzon, police were investigating 35 social media reports of vote-buying. —WITH CHRIS PANGANIBAN, CONG CORRALES, ALLEN ESTABILLO, RYAN ROSAURO AND TONETTE OREJAS
