Cops file vote-buying case vs bet’s supporter in Pampanga

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — The police in Candaba, Pampanga, on Saturday filed a case against a mayoral candidate’s coordinator who was caught giving out money to villagers in the town in exchange for votes, a prohibited act under the Omnibus Election Code (OEC).

The case against Apolinario Cruz, which was filed at the provincial prosecutor’s office, sends a strong signal that the police are serious in the campaign against vote buying, said Senior Superintendent Oscar Albayalde, Pampanga police director.

Albayalde said it was the first such case in the province. Old-timers in the Pampanga police reckoned this to be the first vote buying case filed by the police in at least 20 years.

Cruz, 51, was caught in the act of handing out white envelopes, containing three P100 bills each, to several voters in Barangay (village) Mangga at 11 a.m. on May 10, a police report said.

The two bags he carried, printed with the word “Busog,” contained 44 white envelopes with the same amount of bills.

Superintendent Jhoanna Rosales, provincial operations chief, said Cruz denied knowing Reynaldo Capati Sagum, who registered the alias “Busog” in his certificate of candidacy.

Cruz said the bags were just passed on to him.

Sagum could not be reached for comment on Saturday although he was not implicated in the case.

Election offenses under OEC are punished with imprisonment of not less than a year but not more than six years.