A POLL watchdog organization has urged the public of their participation in monitoring vote-buying activities as Election Day nears.
Nestor Banuag, National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel)-Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental coordinator, said that concerned citizens are still key players in putting a stop to the vote-buying practice.
"For our part, we can be (given) referral sa kinsa tong nang-reklamo para mahatod ang information sa (to those who have complaints, so we can give the information to the) nearest police station. We also accept reports through social media, they can feed us information," he said.
In response, Cagayan de Oro Police Office spokesperson Police Lieutenant Colonel Mardy Hortillosa, admitted that it is difficult to stop this practice.
Hortillosa said they cannot immediately arrest persons involved in vote-buying since they will need to validate it.
He said they received many complaints about vote-buying in barangay elections but no one was arrested.
Hortillosa said politicians usually easily gets away with the accusations, as they can always justify if they happen to gather evidence on vote-buying.
"Daghan kaayo tang nadawatan nga reports sa barangay elections, dili man sayon mangdakop, kinahanglan pa i-validate (we have received many reports in the barangay elections, but it is not easy to apprehend these people because there is a need to validate them)," he said.
He said they will try their best to arrest the people behind this illegal practice.
"Naay order atong city director nga kung naay information, validate, pag walay ebidensya then monitor, but kung naay evidence, siguroon namo nga vote-buying kay naay possibility nga hatag ra diay sa volunteers, pero we will try," Hortillosa added.
(Our city police director has an order that if there will be an information, we should validate. If there are no evidences, then we monitor, but if there are evidences, we'll make sure that it's actually vote buying, because there's a possibility that only those volunteers are giving the money, but we will try).