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Rhodina Villanueva - The Philippine Star
May 3, 2025 | 12:00am
Comelec Commissioner Ernesto Maceda Jr. said they are looking at the number of reported vote buying and ASR to surge before May 12.
STAR / Boy Santos, File
MANILA, Philippines — With just 10 days remaining before the midterm elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) expects the number of vote buying and abuse of state resources (ASR) activities by candidates to go up.
Comelec Commissioner Ernesto Maceda Jr. said they are looking at the number of reported vote buying and ASR to surge before May 12.
“We do anticipate that additional reports of vote buying and vote selling activities will still come in 10 days before election day,” Maceda, chairman of the Comelec’s Committee on Kontra Bigay (CKB), said in an interview on the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon program yesterday.
He encouraged the public to continue reporting cases of vote buying and ASR in their respective areas.
Maceda said the public may report via email at [email protected] or on the Comelec Facebook page.
Latest data provided by the CKB showed it has received 309 reports of vote buying or ASR. This is lower than the 1,226 reports received during the May 2022 elections.
Calabarzon had the most number of reports with 64, followed by Central Luzon with 54, Metro Manila with 52, Mimaropa with 20 and the Bicol Region with 20.
Meanwhile, areas with the most number of reports are Laguna, Marikina City, Rizal, Bulacan, Pampanga, Oriental Mindoro, Malabon City and Isabela.
Maceda said the top modes of vote buying reported involved distribution of cash as well as goods or anything of value.
As to ASR, the official said most reports they received pertain to release or provision of ayuda or social services.
Counting machines
Comelec Chairman George Garcia said all 93,629 automated counting machines (ACMs) have been delivered to all Comelec offices in the different cities and municipalities nationwide.
“As of today, all the voting machines are already in the possession of the local Comelec,” Garcia confirmed in an interview following the conduct of the final testing and sealing (FTS) of the ACMs held in Pateros.
The Comelec started deployment of the 93,629 ACMs, as well as the 16,371 contingency machines, last April 4.
Garcia said all ACMs could have undergone the FTS as early as yesterday.
However, he said other local Comelec officials decided to do it between May 5 to 7 so their entire provinces could do the FTS simultaneously.
“It will be conducted only until May 7. So that if a problem in the machine or USB will be encountered, there is still enough time to address it,” Garcia said.
Comelec data showed there are a total of 68,431,965 registered voters for the May 2025 polls. — Emmanuel Tupas
