It’s hard to stop vote buying, says Butuan poll exec

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – Though saddened by the results of another survey conducted by a Catholic university showing that most respondents here are willing to sell their votes, city election officer Ernie Palanan admitted it would be difficult for them to curb vote buying in the May polls.

In an interview on Tuesday, Palanan said it would be hard for them to prosecute anybody caught selling or buying votes, even as he expressed alarm over the survey results showing that most youth voters in this city are willing to sell their votes.

Palanan said he has ordered the police and the military not to tolerate vote buying and selling and to arrest anybody caught engaging in such an activity.

The survey, done last April 1-7, was the third conducted by the Fr. Saturnino Urios University (FSUU). Results show that 1,367 of the 1,833 respondents from 86 barangays indicated their willingness to sell their votes on May 13.

“Which means that eight of every 10 respondents are expecting money for their votes, showing an increase in the number of Butuan voters who expect money compared to our two previous survey results,” said Dr. Mary Joy Miller, an official of FSUU and the FSUU Policy Center.

Miller, together with FSUU professors Rosario Cherry Ladaga and Rex Makinano and FSUU Policy Center executive director Josefe Sorera-Ty, briefed the media on the survey findings on Monday.

The FSUU officials expressed alarm over the results of the survey, whose respondents were mostly young city voters. They said the respondents wanted to receive money on election day so they could go out for a gimmick or party.

The FSUU Policy Center said the three surveys were non-partisan and aimed at helping the public make an informed choice.

The center said it would conduct their fourth and last survey by the next of April or next month and would announce the results to the public.

According to the FSUU officials, they used a new set of respondents in the third survey, representing one percent of the total registered voters of Butuan City.

They found out that most, if not majority of the respondents, were concerned about lack of employment opportunities and livelihood, the problem on garbage and flooding, lack of basic needs like water, electricity, shelter, food and housing, and peace and order.

Four of 10 respondents expressed concern about flying voters, the peace and order situation, possible power outage and sabotage, and technical problems concerning the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines on election day.