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Rhodina Villanueva - The Philippine Star
May 17, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Four days after the midterm polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it continues to receive reports of vote-buying activities, with over 800 cases recorded as of yesterday morning.
“As of 7:30 a.m., total reports and complaints we received is 806, and even if election day has long been held last Monday, there are still trickles coming in,” Comelec Commissioner Ernesto Maceda Jr. said in a radio interview yesterday.
The Comelec noted that out of these 806 complaints, 636 refer to vote-buying incidents while 268 for abuse of state resources.
“While vote-buying highlights the direct use or giving out of money, under the abuse of state resources, it is more serious. Here, the good thing is you can directly pinpoint those in office or power commit abuse of state resources. Unlike in vote-buying, more often than not, you will only be able to arrest the middleman or the supporter,” he said.
Maceda, chairman of the Comelec’s Committee on Kontra Bigay (CKB), encouraged the public to report incidents of vote-buying and vote-selling.
“We will continue to accept your reports and complaints,” he said. “Since most of the winning local candidates have already been proclaimed, what will happen is that your complaints against these officials might just turn into a filing of an election offense.”
“Those who are hoping for these officials to be disqualified, that period has already ended since the candidates have already been proclaimed,” he added.
Maceda said they can only push for petitions for disqualification that were filed before the candidates were proclaimed. He noted that a total of 66 DQ cases were filed with the clerk of the Comelec.
“A great majority of those are using their email or FB post or pictures though there is no substantial evidence attached,” he said. “What we always say is that if you will file a complaint or report but it is lacking of evidence, it will be difficult for us to act on it.”
Maceda said it is better if the complainant shows up with an affidavit, picture or video. “In that case, we don’t need to assess if that is enough since filing will immediately be made,” he added.
The CKB head said the Comelec division where the case will be assigned still needs to assess if there is enough grounds for disqualification.
PNP: Mission accomplished
Despite the spate of violence during the midterm elections, the Philippine National Police maintained it accomplished its mission of securing the electoral exercise.
Utilizing over 163,000 police officers, PNP chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil said yesterday the 2025 national and local elections concluded without major glitches.
He said there were isolated incidents or shortcomings but the broader outcome should not be ignored and the elections were carried out successfully.
“This election was not without challenges, but overall, it was generally peaceful, orderly and successful,” Marbil said in a statement.
During the election period, the PNP conducted 862,827 checkpoint operations, which resulted in the arrest of over 3,000 gun ban violators, which is 72 percent higher than the arrests during the 2023 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. The operations also resulted in the seizure of 3,229 firearms.
Marbil said there were 74 validated election-related incidents, which is 29 percent fewer than the 105 cases in the 2023 BSKE.
However, the PNP has noted vote-buying was more rampant compared with previous elections. During the midterm elections, there were 43 vote-buying incidents, which is higher than the 24 cases in 2023, a spike of 79.16 percent.
Posted voter’s list
The National Privacy Commission has launched an investigation into a possible privacy breach of the posted computerized voter’s list (PCVL) at some polling sites in the May 12 elections.
The NPC said it received reports about PCVLs, which contained voters’ personal information such as names, photographs and residential addresses, that were displayed on bulletin boards outside voting precincts.
The commission said it is looking into whether the public display of the PCVL violated provisions of Republic Act 10173, or the Data Privacy Act and NPC issuances.
The NPC urged the public to refrain from taking pictures of the PCVLs and posting copies on their social media platforms without the consent of the persons on the list.
“Unauthorized sharing of personal data may lead to further privacy risks and potential violations of the law,” the NPC said, as it encouraged people to report similar incidents to their office for appropriate action. — Emmanuel Tupas
