MANILA, Philippines — Senatorial candidate Conrado “Ding” Generoso on Thursday night said he wants the death penalty for vote buyers.
Generoso, the former spokesperson of the Consultative Committee that drafted the proposed federal charter of President Rodrigo Duterte in 2018, revealed his stand on the issue during the “Rundown 2019” Senate elections forum organized by the University of the Philippines Economics Society and held at UP Diliman, Quezon City.
“Una po, dapat siguro bitayin ang mga namimili ng vote (First, maybe we should impose the death penalty for vote buyers),” the former journalist said.
The federalism advocate who is running under the Katipunan ng Kamalayang Kayumanggi party also said there is a need to revise the laws on campaign funding, as well as to strengthen the country’s political party system and do away with personality-driven politics.
“Pangalawa po, napakalaki po ng problema natin ng campaign financing. Dyan po nag-uugat… Pinapayagan ng batas ang bawat kandidato na na gumastos ng daang milyon. Sabi nga ng Comelec (Commission on Elections) sa amin kung walang kang P200 million you are a nuisance. Anong klaseng sistema po yan?” Generoso, who is also pushing for a national industrialization program and the advancement of science and technology sector, lamented.
(Second, we have a huge problem on campaign financing. That’s the cause of the problem…the law allows candidates to spend hundreds of millions of pesos. The Comelec told us that if you don’t have P200 million, you are a nuisance candidate. What kind of system is that?)
“Dapat po magkaroon tayo ng mahigpit na campaign finance law kung saan ang mamamayan ay papagyagan natin na mag-contribute sa atin pong mga partido. Palakasin natin ang ating political party system. Ilagay po natin ang eleksyon sa isyu ng partido at plataporma imbes na personality ang ginagamit natin sa paghusga ng mga humihingi ng ating boto,” he added.
(We should have a strict campaign finance law where wealthy individuals will be allowed to contribute to political parties. We need to strengthen our political party system. Let’s put election issues in the platform of candidates instead of resorting to personality-based electoral decisions.)
Former Commission on Human Rights chair Rosetta Rosales, one of the panelists during the panel discussion portion of the event, asked three pre-selected candidates about their position on vote buying and election fraud and their plans on restoring the “dignity of right to suffrage” if elected to Senate.
Candidate Balde Baldevarona said the electoral system should be challenged and the safeguarding of ballots should be strenghthened at the local level.
Baldevarona also pushed for jailing irresponsible parents.
“Kaya nga ibalik natin ang edukasyon at isaksak natin ang edukasyon na tama sa utak ng mga bata. Baguhin natin ang ating pagpapalaki sa ating mga anak. That is why I am for criminalization of irresponsible parenthood,” he said.
(We need to educate the youth properly… Let’s change the way we raise our children.)
Senatorial aspirant Butch Valdes also lamented that vote-buying incidents continue to happen during elections.
“‘Yung vote buying… siguro po dahil sa kahirapan (probably because of poverty)… Pero ito pong sistema natin (this system) has to be corrected, and it has to be addressed immediately,” Valdes said, adding that he is proposing that an elected official proven to have cheated should be ousted and jailed together with those who colluded with him or her.
“If any official already seated is found to have cheated by buying this seat from the Comelec and Smartmatic, he should be out of the position. And both of them, the Comelec and the politician, should go to jail,” he said.
The other 12 senatorial aspirants who attended the forum were Shariff Albani, Ernesto Arellano, Toti Casiño, Neri Colmenares, Ka Leody de Guzman, Agnes Escudero, Elmer Francisco, Samira Gutoc, Florin Hilbay, RJ Javellana, Dan Roleda, and Dado Padilla. /ee