Social media reports of vote buying not enough to prosecute without testimony — Comelec
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections said the vote buying incidents reported via social media may be difficult to prosecute without people coming forward with testimonies.
“It’s very difficult to prosecute crimes like this simply because medyo mahirap mangalap ng mga ebidensya, mga testimonya (it’s hard to look for pieces of evidence and testimonies) and we do not want the courts dismissing our cases,” Comelec Commissioner George Garcia said in an interview with CNN Philippines’ “The Source” on Thursday.
Garcia said that while social media posts are enough for its anti-vote buying task force to conduct an investigation, without testimony from the person who took the video, the case may not prosper.
He noted that previous cases involving vote buying did not move forward because some complainants withdrew, while other pieces of evidence were not deemed credible.
The task force will have the National Bureau of Investigation to lead the verification and investigation of the social media posts, while the Department of Justice will be prosecuting the case.
Garcia said to verify a video, an investigation team or the Comelec’s field personnel may be sent to the location seen in a video reported on social media to collect their own documentary evidence. This may include actual envelopes given to people in the area.
“We decided to make it a multi-agency task force para po mas effective ‘yung ating campaign, para po mas katakutan naman yung gagawin ng Comelec (so the campaign will be more effective and so people would fear the consequences imposed by Comelec),” Garcia said.
The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Philippine Information Agency, Philippine National Police, and Armed Forces of the Philippines are also part of the task force.
Comelec said it has directed its field personnel to investigate and submit reports to its Law Department even before the task force was created. These will now be turned over to Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, who will be leading the group.
Those who will be proven guilty of vote buying after the task force’s investigation will face disqualification cases, if an election candidate is an involved party, but also an election offense.
Garcia emphasized that they might spend one to six years behind bars.
In a Comelec briefing on Thursday, Garcia said disqualification cases may also be handed even if the candidates win the elections.
For elected officials, Comelec said it can suspend their proclamation if they end up facing a disqualification case or their proclamation may be annulled “so that the rules of succession can now be effective.” — Kaycee Valmonte
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