Comelec receives 4 reports of vote buying
MANILA, Philippines — The Committee on Kontra Bigay (CKB) of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) received four reports of vote buying in four provinces ahead of the 2025 midterm elections, the election body said on Friday.
Comelec Commissioner Ernesto Maceda Jr., CKB commissioner-in-charge, revealed to the media that the committee is now investigating vote buying reports from Misamis Oriental, Apayao, Negros Occidental, and Baguio.
“Right now, mga reports yan na umabot sa amin through the complaint centers at hindi naman po namin pwedeng maaksyunan until maverify yan,” Maceda said in an ambush interview.
(Right now, we received reports through the complaint centers and we can’t act on them yet until they are verified.)
Maceda shared that some of the reports are have photographs of the alleged vote-buying incidents. They also received a media report from Baguio where an incumbent party-list group’s first nominee was seen distributing P100.
He, however, said that the committee is still verifying the reports.
“We act on verified reports. We would like to be able to do that para walang masabing di sumunod sa tamang proseso (to say that we follow the right process),” Maceda pointed out.
Maceda likewise said that even without the presence of complaints, the committee can immediately issue a show cause order on vote buying allegations recorded on social media.
The CKB, relaunched last February 8, is tasked to enforce strict mechanisms to combat vote-buying, vote-selling, and abuse of state resources (ASR) for the 2025 elections.
According to Comelec Resolution No. 11104, the committee is authorized to “[f]acilitate the filing of appropriate complaint for election offense or disqualification of candidates for vote-buying and vote-selling, or acts constituting ASR in elections, with the Law Department of the Commission or Clerk of the Commission, respectively.”
Maceda also recalled an incident in the 2023 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections where the Comelec did not allow erring winners from assuming their posts.
