Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 22) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday said it will soon release guidelines that will strengthen its fight against any form of vote buying.
“In the next few days, the Comelec will be announcing certain revolutionary guidelines when it comes to campaign against vote buying. We will be making some presumptions which had not been done before by the Commission on Elections,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia told CNN Philippines’ The Source.
He noted the guidelines will include any questionable money transfers made online by a candidate during a campaign and election period.
“These people will just say, we are just sending to our relatives or what. But you are sending within the same barangay and you are sending ₱ 2,000 each, and you have not sent before. And then therefore, you should be presumed as involved in vote buying especially if the sending happens during the campaign period,” Garcia explained.
He said they will not focus on the amount, but on the pattern and the other circumstances on the transfer of funds to other individuals.
The Comelec will ask the Anti-Money Laundering Council if it can direct e-wallet companies to submit to the commission transactions during the 10 days of the campaign period and election day since this is when vote buying is usually done.
In the case of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, the campaign period will be from Oct. 19-28 and election day will be on Oct. 30.
“Since the 1985 law does not cover this modern way of sending money, then the Comelec under the constitution can always promulgate guidelines or rules to cover what is lacking in our law,” Garcia noted.
He said the Comelec will still discuss this proposal on Wednesday.
If this will be implemented, Garcia said they will be filing cases against those possibly involved in this illegal act and let them prove in court whether they are guilty or not.
Meanwhile, Garcia said the Comelec is almost 100% ready for the conduct of village-level polls.
Reprinting of almost two million ballots is ongoing, while the training of electoral board members will be done in September, he said.
