62 M voters troop to mid-term polls Monday
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Sun, 12 May 2019 09:00:19 +0000
BANNERS of candidates fill the streets of Tondo, Manila on the eve of the mid-term elections. (Ali Vicoy)
Close to 62 million voters troop to the polling places Monday to cast their votes amid concerns of massive vote-buying that have resulted in multiple arrests across the archipelago.
“Definitely we are expecting that vote-buying will happen in the last few hours before the elections,” said Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez Sunday.
Also on the eve of the mid-term elections, posters and banners of candidates sprouted like mushrooms even in prohibited places.
Jimenez urged the public to report vote-buying and other election offense despite difficulties to catch the culprits red-handed.
“The problem is how do you actually prepare for it? That usually takes place inside homes and ‘sitio’ and it’s not all the time the police will be there,” Jimenez conceded.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has so far arrested 157 people for vote-buying, including 84 individuals in Metro Manila.
Eight vote buyers, including three barangay officials, and 52 voters were arrested in Barangay Isidro in Makati City Saturday night, according to Police Major Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief.
Eleazar identified the barangay officials as Karen May Matibag, 26; Medlyn Joy Ong, and Ma. Liberty Dacullo, 33. The five other alleged vote buyers were Wenifredo Ong Jr., 37; Mario Louis Siriban, 32; Adrian Chiapoco, 30; John Brian Matibag, 30; and Ma. Liberty Dacullo, 33.
Seized were 820 pieces of P500 bills worth P410,000, 19 assorted identification cards, 10 units of mobile phones, list of voters with their addresses and precinct numbers, and two boxes of Ulat sa Bayan leaflets of a mayoral candidate. The Makati mayoral post is hotly contested by incumbent Mayor Abegail Binay and brother Junjun, who is a former city chief executive.
In Romblon, three voters from a barangay in Odiongan surrendered the money they allegedly received from a re-electionist town councilor and a barangay captain.
Lt. Col. Socrates Faltado, spokesman of the Mimaropa (Mindoro Occidental and Oriental, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan) regional police, said the vote-buying occurred on Saturday at the house of barangay captain Darlene Lachica Fornal.
Fornal and councilor Michael Matanggihan Arevalo were accused by the three complainants of allegedly handing them P1,000 each in exchange for votes of those listed in two pieces of paper, according to Faltado.
One paper contains the names of preferred candidates for congressman, governor, and vice governor. The other paper bears the complete lineup – from senatorial to municipal candidates and the name of the party-list group based in Bicol.
“There was also a pocket-size calendar containing the name of that party-list group with a P50 bill stapled on it,” said Faltado.
In Pangasinan, a bundle of cash worth P500,000 were confiscated from four persons accused of vote buying in Barangay Buer in Aguilar.
The suspects allegedly were capitol employees, according to National Bureau of Investigation Dagupan District Office (NBI-DADO) executive officer Darwin Lising.
A total of 43,554 candidates are vying for 18,072 seats.
The biggest bulk of voters will come from Region 4-A (Calabarzon) with 8,674,351 voters followed by the National Capital Region with 7,074,603 and Region3 (Central Luzon) with 6,829,659. (Leslie Aquino and Aaron Recuenco with a report from Liezel Basa Inigo)