CITIZEN’S DUTY | A voter looks for his precinct at a polling place in Old Balara, Quezon City. Voting became almost a daylong hassle in many parts of the country. (Photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
It’s the election season, and the familiar ugly realities of poll violence and vote-buying have surfaced once again.
In the Visayas, there have been reports of vote-buying since May 8, the eve of Election Day, with the cash distributed to residents reportedly ranging from P20 to P14,000.
A construction worker and a minor were arrested close to midnight of May 9 in Barangay Tibsoc, San Enrique town, in Negros Occidental, after they were caught delivering an envelope to a resident in Tibsoc containing P2,000.
The envelope was marked “No. 99 Uswag Ilonggo,” a party list group. The construction worker, Dindo Egay Tolosa, 56, and the minor whose name and age were not disclosed by investigators had also brought with them a shaded sample ballot and leaflets about Uswag Ilonggo.
Tolosa was detained at the San Enrique Police Station while the minor was brought to the Women Children Protection Desk of the police.
A day earlier, a man was caught in Pinamungajan town, west of Cebu City, bringing 16 brown envelopes containing stapled P500 bills and a sample ballot.
The suspect was identified as Valentino Ygay Daquil, 53, a resident of Sitio Bulobogan, Barangay Tajao, in Pinamungajan.
Daquil was riding his motorcycle at around 6 p.m. of May 8 when he was stopped at a checkpoint in Bulobogan.
Assaulted by police
In Bohol province, a former mayor of Panglao town who reported to the police about a blatant display of vote buying just three meters from where they stood said he would file charges against them for assaulting him instead.
The former official, 72-year-old resident Toribio Bon of Barangay Tangnan, suffered bruises after he was hit in the stomach when he tried to resist arrest.
Bon claimed he had just finished voting at Tangnan Elementary School at around 8 a.m. when he saw three policemen giving out cash with sample ballots along the road in front of the school.
He approached the policemen to ask them to stop the three men who were distributing cash with sample ballots in front of the school.
“The policemen instead got angry at me after I asked them if they were blind because it was clear that these men were buying votes,” Bon said.
He ended up resisting arrest and being hit in the stomach as one of the cops thrust the butt of his rifle at him.
The commotion caught the attention of a barangay official and a lawyer who told the police that Bon was a former mayor and a senior citizen. Then the cops left.
According to Lt. Amelito Melloria, Panglao police chief, Bon berated his men and even spat on one of them.
Melloria also claimed that Bon tried to grab a firearm from one of the officers.
But Bon denied that version of the incident. “At my age, do you think I can fight and try to grab a firearm?” he said.
DQ case
Meanwhile, Cavite Vice Gov. Jolo Revilla is facing a disqualification case against his congressional candidacy in the first district of the province over allegations of vote-buying.
A petition was filed last Friday by five residents of Rosario, Cavite — Helen Munggaya Alejo, Mary Ann Villania Pigante, Luningning Composanto Perlas, Manilyn Flores Tantay and Carmen Alcantara Valederama — who claimed that Revilla’s supporters offered them “financial assistance” in exchange for their votes.
According to the petitioners, they were being convinced to avail themselves of application forms for financial assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
They also said they were offered cash remittances through the GCash platform.
“[U]nlike their neighbors whom they personally saw to have filled up the forms in agreement to the vote-buying scheme, [we, the] petitioners[,] refused to do so knowing that it is wrong and against [our] principles,” they said.
They added that the Revilla camp violated Section 68 of the Omnibus Election Code, which specifies as an offense not only the offer of money but also of “material considerations… [to] public officials performing electoral functions.”
They said Revilla’s supporters also violated Section 261(v) of the Omnibus Election Code which prohibits the disbursement of public funds during an election campaign period.
The petitioners asked the Commission on Elections to direct the Provincial Board of Canvassers of Cavite to regard as stray or invalid the votes cast for Revilla.
If Revilla is not disqualified, the petitioners urged the poll body to “suspend… his proclamation in the remote possibility that he gets the highest number of votes.”
—WITH REPORTS FROM CARLA GOMEZ AND JHUNNEX NAPALLACAN
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