The "buying" begins

Six months to go before the May 2016 general election, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) claims that wholesale vote buying has already begun.

Apparently, some candidates are already "buying" certain barangays from P30,000 to P50,000 depending on their size.

The group said they have alerted the government about the reports of vote-buying and that they are ready to testify if needed.

PPCRV revealed that in 2010, they received information about cases of pre-shaded ballots stuffed into ballot boxes in controlled areas. But they were not able to document instances of vote buying in the past because the witnesses were afraid to speak up.

To address vote buying, PPCRV has launched its One Good Vote program to educate voters and at the same time crowdsource poll-related incident reports.

Part of this is the launching of PPCRV SIM cards that can be used by volunteers to communicate with PPCRV information and feedback from the field.

Aside from this, the PPCRV also launched its mobile phone app for One Good Vote where it will feature profiles and platforms of candidates for president and vice-president. App users can also rate each candidate.

We know that vote-buying goes against the idea of free and fair elections. If candidates resort to vote-buying, they are likely to recoup the money they spent to buy votes during the campaign from the public coffers once elected, thus perpetuating corruption in the bureaucracy.

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