EDITORIAL - Vote buying

In another exercise of Filipinos’ freedom of suffrage, millions of people from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi will troop to the polling precincts in schools across the country to decide in the national and local elections the candidates who will lead us for the next three years.

Perhaps, many voters have already decided days ago who they will cast their ballots for, from senators and Lower House representatives down to governor, vice governor, provincial board members, mayor, vice mayor, and council members.

It is sad, however, that vote buying still happens every time we hold the elections, as if it has already become part of our culture. In fact, politicians have already mastered the art of duping the voters with the highest price in their bid to win the elections.

In today’s exercises, it is expected that money will once again exercise its role in influencing the electorate. Candidates with the highest bid will surely secure the victory that would entitle them the positions for the next three years.

Can the vote-buying system be changed? Of course, it eventually can. However, it needs more than a miracle for Filipinos to learn the true value of the political exercise and its sacredness under our democratic environment.

A few days ago, different government agencies banded together to create a task force that would handle complaints and reports from the public on vote buying in today’s midterm elections, a move that is part of the effort to restore the sanctity of the balloting.

Headed by the Commission on Elections, Task Force Kontra Bigay is being supported by the Department of Interior and Local Government, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, and the Integrated Bar of the Philippine. Its mission is to assist anyone who complains of vote buying.

Many would say the task force’s formation is too late since vote buying is already deeply rooted in the country’s electoral system. But, at least, there’s now a serious effort to correct the process long afflicted with such a disease.