Level up the playing field

Our country has already exited from the manual voting and counting of votes since our maiden foray into the automated election system (AES) in May 2010. Unfortunately, the old dirty tricks in politics have also evolved with advanced technology. Worse, our country’s Omnibus Election Code of 1985 has failed to keep up with the evolution of our electoral process. 

The Election Code is the so-called “bible” under which our Commission on Elections (Comelec) operates and abides by in the conduct of voting into office aspirants vying for national and local elections (NLE) in our country. 

Comelec Chairman George Garcia has kept reassuring our Filipino voters that the seven-man poll body would exert every effort to curb, if not totally prevent, any form of fraud and cheating. 

“We will proclaim those who deserve to be proclaimed in the elections,” the Comelec chairman declared.

A veteran election lawyer, Garcia demonstrated such conviction when he was first appointed as Comelec commissioner and handled the presidential and NLE in May 2022. His first acid test as Comelec chairman was the conduct of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) in October 2022. It generally went well nationwide, since anyway it was still using the manual election system.

The mettle of Garcia’s leadership is going through tougher tests as the Comelec is facing what they call a “super election year.” The poll body will oversee the holding of three election exercises this year starting with the May 12, 2025 NLE. After which, the holding of the first elections for the members of the Parliament in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) reset to Oct. 13. And in December, the BSKE will be held.

The mandate of the Comelec is to strictly implement these election laws and adapt with the new “genres” of circumventing them, Comelec commissioner Ernesto Ferdinand Maceda Jr. underscored. But not as a law enforcement body, Maceda hastily clarified during our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday. 

Maceda stressed the enforcement of election laws will be done by the Philippine National Police (PNP), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), among other law enforcement agencies deputized by the Comelec during the election period.

Maceda, however, echoed the commitment of the Comelec to install into office only those who win in clean, fair and honest elections. To effectively neutralize the “new genre” of vote-buying and other foul means to get elected into office, Maceda cited Comelec’s recalibrating the existing election rules and regulations. 

As the head of the Comelec Kontra Bigay Task Force, Maceda disclosed the Comelec has been adopting a number of innovative measures to deter the use of “force, fraud and funds” as tools to win the elections.

It used to be called “guns, goods and gold” in the dirty tricks department of unscrupulous politicians in a do-or-die bid to win their election into public office. With the evolution to the present AES, Maceda told us the Comelec has been collaborating and networking with all stakeholders to prevent, if not totally eradicate, all forms of vote buying and cheating in the coming midterm polls.

Maceda pointed to “a whole-of-nation approach” in order to defeat and beat these new genres of election cheating, aided by tools of modern technology. As the head of the Comelec Kontra Bigay, Maceda thanked GCash of Globe Telecom and Maya of Smart Communications for their respective platforms’ support to the campaign against vote buying. 

In particular, Maceda cited GCash reiterated earlier its commitment to impose anew a limit in daily transactions like it did the first time during the BSKE. He recalled this GCash limit effectively lessened incidence of digital transmittal of vote buying to a certain degree. The temporary restriction will cover even business users to ensure transparent and proper financial activities during the midterm elections.

In my talks with Renren Reyes, chief executive officer G-Xchange Inc., the mother corporate body of GCash, he confirmed that they have indeed been coordinating with the Comelec on how they can improve upon their services in this campaign. Without going into details, Reyes disclosed their IT (information technology) teams are deep into reconfiguring the algorithms to update these restrictions designed to detect digital transmissions of vote buying schemes. 

Once a politician before, Maceda recalled “traditional” campaign antics of distributing scholarship grants; use of government vehicles with the candidates’ photos plastered all over it and use of media events, especially at the local government unit (LGU) level. “These are the built-in advantages of incumbent (officials) for electoral gains,” he noted.

Apart from these “traditional” forms of vote buying, Maceda added the Comelec has observed the emergence of another genre of getting votes, capitalizing on popular “ayuda,” funded out of state resources and subsidies. The most popular of these are the various “ayuda” programs under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and other social services programs in the annual budgets of each government agency. 

“Because sa talamak na pag-abuso sa ayuda, we at the Comelec expanded our focus on the abuse of state resources,” Maceda rued. The Comelec earlier issued an en banc resolution that would strictly prohibit releases of any “ayuda” and other welfare service financial aids 10 days before election day.

Likewise, Maceda announced the Comelec unanimously agreed to apply the principle of “presumption” on an election offense. As example, all illegal sized campaign ads, including those in electronic billboards on buildings, are now presumed “public” places because of the nature of their commercial business activities. 

This will enable the Comelec to act motu proprio, or to act on any election violation even without a formal complaint being filed.

“So these are just some of what we are doing to level the playing field… protect the vulnerable segments of our society and balance the interests of all,” Maceda explained. 

While candidates might win in the elections, they must not think they can get away with their election shenanigans. The Comelec will still go after them and seek disqualification, Maceda warns.