6 days ago
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Rhodina Villanueva - The Philippine Star
March 10, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — To discourage vote buying by candidates in the May 12 elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is urging the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to deny client requests to “break the bill” a week before election day.
“Change of paper money into smaller bills such as P100 or P200 should be prohibited a week or two weeks before election day,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia said in an interview with The STAR’s online show “Truth on the Line.”
Garcia noted that a candidate or his/her team normally won’t give away a P1,000 bill to every voter.
What they will do is have that large amount of bill changed to smaller amounts so that it will look like they have a thick pile of money with them, and the act will look impressive for a candidate,” he explained.
Through the proposed measure, the Comelec is hoping for a reduction of 20 to 25 percent in vote-buying incidents.
The Comelec chief also pointed out that vote buying will not take place a month before elections.
“Vote buying will happen two to three days before elections. That is a crucial time for us. We have to be vigilant of the use of e-wallets and similar platform. We should be on the lookout for that,” Garcia said.
According to the Comelec chair, vote buying will likely revert back to cash distribution since the use of e-wallets has already been exposed.
In February, the Comelec signed a memorandum of agreement with officials from various government agencies, the police, military, election watchdogs and mobile wallet companies that will be deputized to help its Kontra Bigay Committee deter and prosecute vote buyers and sellers.
Apart from cash distribution, Garcia also criticized politicians’ abuse of state resources during election season.
“Maybe there are some who don’t buy votes, but what they do is they use the people’s money like they treat it as their own. That is for the people, but they use it like it belongs to them,” Garcia lamented.
LGUs must seek exemption
On another note, the poll body has denied the application of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the National Food Authority (NFA) to sell rice stocks to local government units (LGUs) as it is covered by the election spending ban.
“The NFA and LGUs must be made aware of the prohibition under Section 261 (w) which, among others, prohibits the issuance, use, or availment of treasury warrants and similar devices,” Comelec law department director Sittie Tawagon said.
“Being absolutely prohibited from 28 March 2025 to 11 May 2025, no exemption may be given by the Commission to any request covering the issuance, use, or availment of treasury warrants or any device undertaking future delivery of money, goods, or other things of value chargeable against public funds,” Tawagon added.
However, Garcia clarified that the non-issuance of exemption to the DA and NFA does not mean LGUs can no longer distribute or sell rice.
“The LGUs (just) need to seek exemption themselves. We can grant them exemptions depending on the reasons cited,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) welcomed the Comelec’s decision to postpone the start of the pre-enrollment period for the Online Voting and Counting System (OVCS) to March 20, noting the latter’s commitment to safeguard the integrity of elections overseas.
“The Department hopes Comelec’s decision for postponement shall enable it to ensure that the OVCS passes all the testing and certification required by Republic Act 9369, the Election Automation Law of 2007, prior to its launch,” the DFA said in a statement. — Mayen Jaymalin, Pia Lee-Brago
