The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting claims it is receiving information that huge amounts of money are being offered to buy votes in the 2022 elections, with its chairman Myla Villanueva saying in an interview on ANC the cheating is now happening.
“We hear a lot of issues about vote-buying and it’s very difficult for PPCRV to catch that and report it. We’re hearing a lot of big numbers being offered to people and families in fact,” she said Monday.
Villanueva said the council needs more volunteers to better monitor the conduct of elections.
Earlier, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) urged the public to report incidents of vote buying as the campaign season for this year’s national and local elections officially started.
Meanwhile, the Metro Manila Development Authority has advised supporters of political parties to avoid littering during campaign rallies.
Meanwhile, nine party-list organizations succeeded in getting at least the 2-percent voter preference they need to secure a congressional seat if elections were held today, based on a Pulse Asia survey released Sunday.
According to the survey, among the 177 party-list groups, the nine were: ACT-CIS – 10.4 percent; AKO BICOL – 5.6 percent; 4PS – 4.3 percent; Senior Citizens Partylist – 3.3 percent; Malasakit@Bayanihan – 3.3 percent; Magsasaka – 2.3 percent; An Waray – 2.3 percent; Gabriela – 2.1 percent; and Kabayan – 2.1 percent.
Progressive groups such as Bayan Muna and ACT Teachers, meanwhile, each got 0.8 percent voter preference while youth organization Kabataan got 0.6 percent, according to the survey.
The survey also found that 62 percent of its respondents were aware of the party-list system, while 38 percent said otherwise.
The nationwide Pulse Asia survey had 2,400 respondents aged 18 and above, with a ± 2 percent error margin at the 95 percent confidence level. It was conducted from Jan. 19 to 24, 2022.
The same survey also showed that Marcos Jr. remained the most preferred presidential candidate in the elections.
Analysts have said election surveys are mere “snapshots of the moment” and do not necessarily predict the outcome of the polls.
Twenty percent of the seats in the House of Representatives are reserved for party-list representatives.
In the elections, voters are allowed to choose only one group among those running under the party-list system.
Meanwhile, some protocols meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were violated in campaign rallies that started last week, the Philippine National Police and a group of doctors said Monday.
While the campaign period that kicked off last Tuesday was generally peaceful so far, PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said police observed violations of the health and safety protocols set by the IATF.
Fajardo did not elaborate but said these violations had been reported to the Commission on Elections.
“If we need to file cases, we will coordinate that with the Department of Health, and of course, the Comelec,” she told a public hearing.
Philippine Medical Association president Dr. Benito Atienza also said his group noticed a lack of physical distancing in some campaign events.
He also noted temperature checks and monitoring of other COVID-19 symptoms would be difficult to do in large crowds.
Fajardo also appealed to candidates and their supporters, “Help your PNP. We are facing a great challenge in the coming elections because of the huge number of restrictions due to this pandemic. Let us keep following the health and safety protocols implemented by the IATF so this virus would not spread.”
The PNP provides security at campaign events that have Comelec permits, Fajardo noted.
Since Jan. 9, police have also apprehended 1,085 people nationwide for violating the election gun ban, said the official.
Roughly 67.5 million Filipinos are eligible to vote, including 1.7 million overseas, in May’s election for a president, vice president, about 300 lawmakers, and roughly 18,000 local government positions.
The Philippines eyes vaccinating its entire adult population against COVID-19 before the polls, the government earlier said.
The country has so far vaccinated about 60 million of its 110 million population. Infections have fallen to about 3,000 a day, following a January uptick driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.
Earlier, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu reminded candidates to be environmentally conscious with the start of the campaign period on February 8.
Cimatu reminded the candidates to properly segregate their campaign materials and dispose of them properly.
The DENR and concerned government agencies signed a joint memorandum circular that urged political parties, party-list groups, and
individual candidates to enforce the Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 for the “Basura-Free Elections.”