Local officials accused of vote buying told to explain

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government has issued notices to a number of politicians to explain their side over allegations of vote buying.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año did not give specifics and estimates on how many local officials were actually summoned to explain, but confirmed that the notices were issued.

“For now, we are not investigating a formal case. However, we did issue the notices to explain,” he said in Filipino during a press conference?in Camp Crame on Thursday.

Año urged complainants to complete the pieces of?evidence needed to ensure an airtight case against politicians who are involved in vote buying and other election-related offences.

“I hope that those who give us information could also complete the documents. We know that this is a bit difficult to do, but this is needed to sanction those who violate the election campaign (rules),” he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to exempt the distribution of fertilizer and fuel subsidy to farmers from the election campaign-spending ban as Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte also asked the poll body to streamline its rules on the 45-day election ban on public spending.

Rodriguez argued that the Comelec, after exempting the financial assistance to public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers from the ban, should also spare the ayuda (assistance) to farmers from the prohibition.

“I believe that the fertilizer and fuel ayuda for the agriculture sector should be exempted as well. Farmers are in the same situation as PUV drivers. Both sectors need the allocated funding support now,” he said.

Rodriguez explained that farmers need the money to prepare their farms before the expected onset of the rainy season next month or in June.

He found support in Agriculture Secretary William Dar, who lamented that the ban not only covers cash assistance to farmers but also the procurement of farm implements and machinery.

On the other hand, Villafuerte appealed to the Comelec to streamline its rules on the 45-day election ban on public spending, with the goal of expediting its action on pending requests for exemptions from the prohibition on fund releases or disbursements.

The former deputy speaker cited the need to resolve the requests sooner to “avoid or end the virtual shutdown of certain national and local government operations this campaign season.”

Villafuerte specifically urged the Comelec to speed up its action on pending applications for exemption from national government agencies, government-owned and controlled corporations and local government units by streamlining its procedures to, among others, give itself a deadline of 7 to 10 days to approve or disapprove the requests from the time these are submitted to the Commission’s Campaign Finance Office.

The former governor said the Comelec could also consider speeding up its process on approving or disapproving exemptions by doing away with the holding of a mandatory hearing to tackle each individual application and just approve the request motu proprio – if and when the applicant has submitted the complete documents and the commission has found merit in such a plea for exemption.

He said Comelec could further accelerate the process of approving or denying requests for exemption by decentralizing this process and empowering its regional or provincial offices to act on applications in their respective localities, instead of requiring every applicant to present case at the Comelec central office in Intramuros, Manila.

Meanwhile, Villafuerte yesterday denied being behind a disinformation campaign against presidential candidate Vice President Leni Robredo as insinuated in an audio recording that went viral online.

A furious Villafuerte said he would ask the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to run after those behind the audio recording that he described as “deep fake” and offered to pay P5 million to whoever will provide information about the source of the recording.

“There is this deep fake audio recording being spread by our opponents where it was supposedly my voice. I will report this to the NBI to investigate and stop these people,” he stressed in an interview, but did not name who his suspects were.?“I will also offer P5 million to whoever can reveal where this deep fake recording being spread against me came from. I will not stop until those behind this are arrested.”

In the viral audio recording, Villafuerte supposedly instructed a woman to come up with a fake social media post linking Robredo to scammers. - Edu Punay