Comelec spokesman James Jimenez. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Monday warned candidates that there were still many individuals claiming they can guarantee a victory for them in the upcoming elections for a price.
“We are getting a lot of reports from politicians complaining that they have been approached by persons claiming they can guarantee an electoral victory,” Comelec Education and Information Division James Jimenez told reporters Monday.
Two persons were previously arrested in Manila by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) after a sting operation in coordination with the Comelec and the mayoral candidate of Simunul in Tawi-Tawi province who made the complaint.
The two had claimed they could manipulate the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) Machines in order to ensure a victory for whoever they were offering their services to.
“Apparently, it did not stop there,” Jimenez said. “I would like to remind politicians to not fall for such offers [of electoral victory].”
He said that the problem was that candidates become worried their political rival might buy the “services” of the supposed PCOS manipulators and so they also buy the offer.
In explaining further, Jimenez said when both candidates buy the supposed “electoral victory,” whoever loses simply gets their money refunded, “but the [supposed PCOS manipulators] still made a profit even though they did not do anything, because they really cannot do anything [to manipulate the PCOS].”
“We are urging the candidates that are being approached to confide with us who these people are,” Jimenez said.
“It’s difficult for Comelec [to go after these people] because when Comelec goes to a certain place and news goes around that we are there, [they disappear] and no longer want to talk to their prospects,” he said.
Despite the fact that Comelec was confident these people have no way of manipulating the results of the elections, “it’s not a good thing that there are people claiming they can,” Jimenez said.
He said these reports mostly came from the Visayas region and in the clusters around urban centers. The persons were making offers of P15 per vote, Jimenez said.
If the candidates were ever found to have bought the offer of the supposed PCOS manipulators, they could be charged with election offenses, he added.
These persons were most likely individual operators and, even though their offer of PCOS manipulation sounds good, to someone who knows how the system works, it was really not possible, Jimenez said.
“They’re really just trying to trick [candidates] for their money,” he said.