28 arrested in Negros Occidental for vote buying
Two P500 bills are tucked inside the sample ballots seized by the police in Moises Padilla town, Negros Occidental. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Twenty-eight persons, including three minors, were arrested in Moises Padilla town for alleged buying of votes and illegal campaigning.
In the town’s Barangay 7, the police caught 12 persons, including two minors, with sample ballots enclosed with two P500 bills.
The police also intercepted a jeepney plying the route of Pulupandan-Bacolod with about 600 sample ballots in it and arrested 12 individuals, including a minor.
Police Lt. Col. Adrian Accolador, head of Task Force MOLAI (Moises Padilla, and neighboring towns, La Castellana, and Isabela), said they received reports that the suspects were involved in vote buying.
The suspects would be charged with vote buying and prohibited campaigning in relation to the Fair Elections Act, Accolador said.
He added that the minors aged 15 to 16, however, were released from police custody.
Accolador said Moises Padilla Mayor Magdaleno Peña called him up and questioned the arrest of those individuals inside the jeepney.
The mayor, according to him, said he hired those men from Pulupandan to help him in the elections.
While the mayor claimed that there was nothing illegal about what he did, Accolador said there was clear violation because campaigning was not allowed the day before the elections. (Editor: Cenon B. Bibe Jr.)
