Cavite gov, 11 others charged with vote buying

MANILA, Philippines - Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla, who is running for re-election, and 11 other local candidates in Cavite have been charged with vote buying by an advocacy group.

The complaint was filed before the Cavite provincial prosecutor’s office by the Alyansa ng mga Botanteng Kabitenyo Laban sa Dayaan (ABKD 2013) last April 12.

Charged with Remulla were board member candidates Ivy Jayne Reyes and Marcos Amutan, mayoral bet Leonisa Joanna Virata, vice mayoral bet Renante Tuatis and candidates for councilor Phlonel Aisa Cortez Gutierrez, Antonio Machado Almoro, Pastor Parado Grabillo Jr., Gerry Tisado Torralba, Jose Serfino Infante, Domingo Malapitan Gunio, Ruel Zata Calix and Rebecca Mendoza Olido.

ABKD 2013 convenors James Warren Florendo, Cristina Cabrera and Teresita Moreno alleged that the incident occurred last April 6 at the University of Perpetual Help (UPH) in General Mariano Alvarez town.          

“Inside the UPH gymnasium were four tables where people from Barangays San Gabriel, Maderan, Lumbreras and Poblacion 3 lined up and each person was made to sign on a piece of paper before they were given a sample ballot with the full line-up of the Remulla-Revilla tandem,” they said in the complaint.

“It was Jonvic Remulla himself who said that the meeting was participated in by more or less a thousand people and there would be four more ‘bigayan’ until the election, just vote straight for the Super Team,” they added.