EDITORIAL - The homestretch

With just a few days to go before people go to the polls, reports of vote buying are so rampant that the Commission on Elections has found it necessary to declare war on those engaging in it. The Comelec is tapping the Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Department of the Interior and Local Government as well as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines for its campaign.

This war can succeed only with public cooperation. The Comelec must ensure that people are aware of how to report cases of vote buying. It must also ensure that it can act on the complaints, and hold accountable those caught engaging in an illegal act. Vote buying has been going on for a long time, but the failure to catch and punish the offenders – both the buyer and seller of votes – has guaranteed the persistence of the problem.

Apart from vote buying, the homestretch of the campaign continues to be marred by armed violence and harassment. Spreading black propaganda has also become so much easier with social media and the internet. The absence of campaign finance regulation also allows the seeds of corruption to be planted.

The Comelec is hard-pressed to even enforce its own rules on common poster areas. If it wants respect, it should be able to show, at the very least, that it can go after some of the blatant violators and impose punishment.

Apart from preventing vote buying, the Comelec and concerned citizens must also prepare to guard the vote, from the moment the ballots are cast, to the transmission of the information and then the count. The Comelec and security forces can do only so much; the best foil against all methods of undermining the will of the electorate is citizen vigilance. It should not be impossible to catch at least some of those who buy and sell votes.