Comelec flags surge in vote buying

"Starting yesterday, there was an increase in vote-buying and in attempts of vote-buying," COMELEC Chairman George Garcia said in an interview on Saturday.

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He noted that the illegal activity continues to be carried out through traditional, face-to-face methods of handing cash to voters, as modern methods have proven ineffective.

“What they do is they exert effort to buy people’s votes in person because they are unable to do it through the use of modern technology,” said Garcia.

Garcia added that e-wallet platforms such as GCash and PayMaya have helped prevent digital vote-buying transactions.

“So far, you haven’t heard of those buying votes using GCash, PayMaya and other digital money platforms because as we have said earlier, they won't be able to do that,” he said.