Comelec to PNP: Arrest vote buyers on sight
Metro Manila, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) ordered the police to arrest vote vote buyers who are caught in flagrante delicto or in the act even if they are not the subject of arrest warrants.
Comelec Chairman George ErwinGarcia on Sunday made the statement after the National Police’s (PNP) Legal Service expressed concern that warrantless arrests might be unlawful.
“The reason vote-buying remains rampant is because no one gets arrested. Maybe it’s because people think they can’t be apprehended without a warrant. But if a crime is happening in front of you, would you really go to court first just to get one?” Garcia told reporters in an ambush interview.
Garcia clarified that police officers, as deputized agents of the Comelec, have the authority to act immediately.
“When we say law enforcement authorities are Comelec’s agents, we mean their actions represent the commission. Our instructions bind them. So if we say arrest them, they must act to stop vote-buying,” he said.
Comelec data shows around 500 vote-buying complaints have been filed so far, with 200 individuals already served with show cause orders.
They said reports of vote-buying are now “nationwide.”
Garcia expects the number to rise even more as the May 12 elections draw closer.
“We need all law enforcement agencies to help. Comelec can’t act alone. We can’t just point to someone and expect them to be arrested. We need officers with us,” he said.
Under Section 37 of Comelec Resolution 11104, law enforcement officers are allowed to make a warrantless arrest if a person is seen committing or attempting to commit vote-buying, vote-selling, or misuse of government resources.
Any money, goods, sample ballots, or campaign materials used in the act must be seized, properly documented, and submitted as evidence.
Garcia stressed the urgency of stopping vote-buying, calling it the “widest form of electoral fraud.”
“It’s extremely unfair to candidates who don’t have money, who don’t resort to buying votes, and who rely on platforms and hard work—only to be beaten by someone with cash and shortcuts,” he said.
Bet told: Explain allegations
Comelec ordered candidate for a seat in the House of Representatives to explain allegations of vote buying hurled against him.
Through a Show-Cause Order (SCO), the Comelec Committee on Kontra Bigay directed candidate, who is seeking reelection, to respond to allegations that he facilitated a recurring activity of picking up groups of individuals in passenger vans, bringing them to a building, and providing them with cash and food packages.
The Parañaque Rep. Gustavo Tambunting was given three days upon receipt of the SCO to explain why no election offense or disqualification case should be filed against him.
“The video and photo evidence attached to the complaint visibly show individuals boarding vans, going inside the building, and leaving the same with food packages,” the SCO said.
According to the complaint submitted to the Comelec, the same groups of individuals who have received cash and food would then board the vans and brought back to where they were picked up. The complaint said the distribution of the cash and food were done in a privately owned building.
The photos attached to the complaint show that the vans used to transport the groups of individuals and parked infront of the building where the alleged vote buying took place bore campaign posters of Tambunting.
Fake news
In addition to vote-buying, Garcia said the Comelec is also battling fake news spreading on social media just days before the polls.
The commission has been actively debunking claims about alleged fraud in the election system.
There have also been reports of individuals posing as Comelec officials using fake IDs and letters, offering to secure election victories for a fee.
Garcia called on voters to help stop the spread of disinformation.
“Why don’t we ask those who keep talking about election fraud—why are they silent on vote-buying?” he said.
Instead of circulating falsehood, Garcia urged the public to focus on vote-buying, which he called the “worst” threat to the country’s democracy.
“Vote-buying must not be part of our culture. It degrades the dignity of poor Filipinos whose votes are being bought,” he added.
‘Disqualify mayoral bet’
Comelec has been formally asked to disqualify Michelle de Guzman Mabulo as a candidate for mayor in San Fernando, Camarines Sur, for allegedly peddling fake news against her family’s political rivals.
In a joint complaint-affidavit Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte and Gov. Vincenzo Renato Luigi Villafuerte said their filing of the case against Mabulo for her disqualification as a poll bet was “without prejudice to the institution of other criminal and civil complaints against her” for alleged violation of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC) in making false accusations online against the Villafuertes.
While Mabulo is running for mayor in San Fernando, her husband and outgoing mayor Fernando Mabulo is running for congressman in the province’s Second Legislative District against Luigi Villafuerte, the incumbent governor.
“We are executing this Complaint-Affidavit to attest to the truth of all the foregoing and to cause the prosecution of respondent Mabulo for violation of the above-mentioned crime. We reserve the right to present additional evidence which are not readily available to us at the moment,” the Villafuertes said in their joint complaint-affidavit.
The Villafuertes said that Mabulo had accused them of vote-buying in posting on her Facebook page last May 1 a photo of five folded P1,000 bills on the side of a letter supposedly signed by the two complainants.
In her Facebook post, Mabulo stated that: “Ano ito? Totoo ba ito? Kaya mayong nagigibo sa probinsya ta, mabakal na lang kada election.”
Translated in Tagalog, Mabulo’s post means: “Ano ito? Totoo ba ito? Dahil wala nagagawa so probinsya, bibili nalang tuwing eleksyon.”
They said this Facebook post, which has been shared and circulated 660 times thus far, was “false and deceptive news” as they have “never engaged in any form of vote-buying and have strictly complied with all elections laws in the present and all the past elections.”
