Church’s vote buying drive failed, admits Leyte bishop
TACLOBAN CITY—No less than Eastern Visayas’ top prelate admitted that their campaign against vote buying failed.
Archbishop John Du of the Archdiocese of Palo in Leyte made this admission during a retreat for journalists in Tacloban City.
Du said he visited some polling centers in the archdiocese and heard stories of vote-buying.
In fact, he said, a candidate in Ormoc City admitted to him that he was engaged in vote buying.
“And he even told me that he has something for me,” the obviously aghast Du said.
The archbishop said that vote buying was among the issues that the Catholic Church frowned on during the May 13 elections.
“And despite our campaign, we failed [to convince our people]. We are not effective. How to stop that, I don’t know. We need the Holy Spirit to enlighten us,” Du said.
In Eastern Visayas, stories of vote buying were so common during the elections, with amounts ranging from P10 to P6,000, depending on the position being sought by candidates.
A veteran solon in Samar Island even said that he lost on his reelection bid due to “massive” vote buying in his area. He added that his rival even used “fake” money to buy votes.
Du said he felt bad that vote buying during the last elections had become not only rampant but had become a two-way process, which meant that the politicians buy votes and the voters willingly allowed themselves to be bought.
The archbishop said that if this would continue during future elections in the country, the people would be at the losing end.
“They have yet to internalize its impact. They should not blame anyone but themselves,” he said.
The candidates who buy votes would certainly recoup the huge money spent to win in the elections, Du said.
However, Leyte elections supervisor Richard Alvin Japzon said that while they learned that there was vote buying through media reports, not a single individual came to their office to file a formal complaint.
