Complaints vs vote-buying urged despite slow justice
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has urged voters to file complaints against candidates who engaged in vote buying even as they admitted that it will take years for electoral complaints to be resolved. “Dapat talaga ang makakita
ng vote-buying na may ebidensya,
mag-file ng complaint (Those who have evidence on vote buying should really file a complaint),” Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said during a press conference at the Comelec command center on Monday, May 14.
Guanzon said vote buying is rampant in the country as candidates believe that “they can get away with it.”
Guanzon blamed the Comelec’s law department for the slow resolution of cases filed before the poll body.
“Speed bagal kasi ang investigation ng law department dito,” she said. “Magfa-file ka ng complaint, ang tagal-tagal bago maimbistigahan (It takes a long time before an investigation is conducted after a complaint is filed),” she further lamented.
Some of the complaints filed at the Comelec take four to six years to be resolved, Guanzon said.
She said there is a need for election reforms to also include other offenses like new forms of vote buying, intimidation and threats.
Newly-appointed Commissioner Socorro Inting, formerly a sitting Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals, also noted the slow litigation process at the Comelec.
Inting believes that the commission needs more lawyers in order to address the case backlogs.
“We really need lawyers to help us in the fact-finding, in the resolution of cases,” she said.
Commissioner Luie Guia, for his part, emphasized that vote buying and vote selling are crimes.
He said voters can file their complaint against candidates found violating the law either before the Comelec or a lower court.
Amid the complaints of commissioners themselves over the slow litigation process at the Comelec, Guia assured the public that they are trying their best to really speed up the resolution of complaints on vote buying.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez, in a previous press conference, said the Comelec is now verifying various reports on vote buying incidents nationwide.