By Martin Sadongdong

Take the money but vote wisely.

This was the advice given by Police General Oscar Albayalde, Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief, who admitted Monday that vote-buying is one of the hardest challenges that law enforcers have to deal with in the upcoming May 13 midterm elections.

“Ang vote buying napakahirap bantayan it’s because seemingly almost all of the candidates, we’re not saying everybody, but almost all of them have allegations of vote buying. Lahat ito kailangan bantayan na mga kandidato (Vote buying is very hard to guard against because seemingly almost all of the candidates, we’re not saying everybody, but almost all of them have allegations of vote buying. We need the candidates to be always on guard on this),” he said.

The country’s top cop said voter’s education is vital so that the public would be able to discern who to vote for.

“Sabihin na natin nabigyan tayo ng pera hindi natin maiwasan na tumanggap ng ano but then again iboto natin kung sino ang nararapat. Kung hindi maano ng pulis ‘yang vote buying, tanggapin na lang natin siguro ‘yong pera pero iboto pa rin natin kung sino ang nararapat (Let’s say we are give money, sometimes we can’t avoid that, but then again let us still vote for the worthy candidates. If the police have difficulty in dealing with vote buying, might as well accept the money but vote for the right ones),” he said.

Under Section 261 of the Batas Pambansa Bilang 261, vote buying is referred to as the act of giving, offering, or promising money or anything of value “in order to induce anyone or the public in general to vote for or against any candidate or withhold his vote in the election, or to vote for or against any aspirant for the nomination or choice of a candidate in a convention or similar selection process of a political party.”

It is considered a corrupt practice by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and is punishable by imprisonment of not less than one year but not more than six years.

“I think the best thing here is voter’s education. Malaman ng tao kung sino ang dapat iboto. Hindi kung sino ang nagbigay ng mas malaking pera ‘yan na ang iboto nila (I think the best thing here is voter’s education. The public should know who to vote for. Not because one candidate gave you a larger amount of money you will already vote for him),” Albayalde said.

Absentee voting



A total of 4,981 PNP personnel stationed in different regions nationwide have signified intention to participate in the local absentee voting, including 163 personnel who will cast their votes in Camp Crame on Tuesday, April 30.

“We encourage all 190,000 PNP personnel to exercise their right and perform their duty to elect our country’s leaders,” Albayalde said.

“Police personnel are prohibited from engaging in any form of partisan political activity, the only political exercise that we are allowed to perform is to cast our votes,” he added.

The PNP Chief also reminded policemen that they are not allowed to enter the polling precincts unless their presence is approved by the on-duty electoral board (EB), and to stay apolitical and non-partisan.

He said policemen should be 50 meters away from the polling precinct that they are guarding. However, there are cases when policemen have to be nearer to the polling precinct especially in critical areas so that they can easily respond to emergency situations.

“We already gave instructions to our police officers to coordinate with different EBs especially so in critical areas so that even before the conduct of actual voting, our policemen could stay closer to them with the expressed permission from the EBs,” Albayalde stressed.

“Palagi nating nire-remind ang mga kapulisan on the ground to be non-partisan and apolitical. As you have noticed, we’ve been continuously rotating our personnel kapag mayroon tayong nakikita like pag-provide ng unnecessary or unauthorized security (We always remind the police on the ground to be non-partisan and apolitical. As you have noticed, we’ve been continuously rotating our personnel if we see [suspicious activities] like providing unnecessary or unauthorized security [to candidates],” he added.

Albayalde earlier said that the PNP is ironing out all the security preparations for the upcoming polls. About 143,000 cops will be fielded nationwide in the different polling precincts to ensure public safety. #NatalinongBoto2019