Are fake voters invading your barangay like this one?

Did the number of voters in your barangay balloon like in this one? Were there so many new registrants at your Comelec district office?

If so, expect fraud on Barangay Election Day, Oct. 30, 2023. You’ll likely end up with barangay officials you don’t want and never elected. They will not serve but only steal from you.

This happened in Barangay Carmona, Makati City. On new voter registration days, Dec. 12, 2022 to Jan. 31, 2023, 3,697 fake voters signed up with the Comelec. It was an incredible 78 percent increase to 8,415. Last presidential-congressional-local election, May 9, 2022, the barangay had only 4,718 legitimate voters.

The jump in new voters defied the Philippine Statistics Authority’s forecast for Barangay Carmona of only 500 population growth in 2023. There was no mass migration of new residents nor increase in the barangay’s territory, chairman Joselito M. Salvador attested.

Salvador and other longtime voters challenged before the Comelec 497 new registrants. Scrutinizing the applications, they noticed fictitious addresses in their barangay. Names were deliberately misspelled. Identity documents were falsified.

Workplaces and employers were unregistered with the Department of Trade and Industry. “There is no business name registration filed,” DTI said of Alpha Work Force, Golden Star Learning Cleaning Service, Astra Resources, MAB Commercial Learning & Janitorial Services, Fastwork Manpower Services, Lotus System Manpower & Service Provider, Lucky Red Services, Sunlight Human Resources, Wbs Manpower Solution, Moderna Systems Employment Services and JBN Manpower Services.

The 497 “new voters” have executed affidavits to withdraw their Comelec applications. They must have realized that their offense carries a penalty of six years’ imprisonment, disqualification from public office and loss of suffrage rights.

In individual affidavits they swore by their genuine names and identification papers: PhilHealth, vaccination, voter, school, postal, national ID card; taxpayer identification number; birth certificate; NBI clearance; driver’s license; passport. True addresses range from as close as other Makati barangays; adjacent Pasig, Taguig and Manila cities to faraway Bulacan, Zambales, Laguna and Mindoro Occidental provinces.

The mob-for-hire was hauled from a Metro Manila slum. They said that neediness drove them into the racket. Their virtual admission of fakery casts serious doubt on the other “new voters.”

Each was paid P1,000 to register with the Comelec unit at Makati City Hall. Payor allegedly was an aspiring barangay candidate whose brother is a DPWH contractor-supplier classified as “AAA.” Capable of contracting at least P100 million, the latter is suspected to have bankrolled the payoffs.

This could be happening elsewhere. Big businessmen might be taking an interest in barangay polls.

Probable reason? The Supreme Court’s recent Mandanas ruling will transfer to local governments 27 percent more Internal Revenue Allotment starting 2023. Not only provincial, city or municipal IRA shares are to rise but also that of barangays. Barangays in rich cities have higher IRAs.

Can Comelec weed out fake voters in your barangay between now and October? Once flying voters are bused to your polling precinct on Election Day, it will be too late. Thereafter, ghost infrastructure will rise in your barangay – with contractors fully paid and officials receiving kickbacks.

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