The Commission on Election (Comelec) is set to start its investigation on the alleged mass vote buying activity of a former Pharmally Biologicals Inc. official, who is now running for Congress in Quezon City.
In a statement last Tues., Comelec Commissioner George M. Garcia said they issued a subpoena and proceeded with the preliminary probe on the case of Rose Nono Lin and 16 others, who were accused of 237 counts of vote buying.
“We will afford due process to all and we will not allow our judgement to be swayed by publicity or populism. Ours will be guided only by the evidence presented and the law applicable based on the given facts,” Garcia said.
The case against Lin were filed by the Koalisyong Novaleño Kontra Korapsyon and the Alyansa ng mga Mamamayan ng Bagbag before the Comelec Legal Department in Intramuros, Manila last Tuesday.
The complainant accused Lin and the other respondents of “coordinated scheme to buy votes” of voters in Novaliches even before the filing of Certificate of Candidacy last Oct.
“The brazenness of their vote-buying scheme is disgusting. And their vote-buying operations have become obvious for probably all Novaleños, so much that the name ‘Rose Lin’ has become synonymous with a 500-peso bill inside a small cash envelop,” the complainants said in their 17-page joint complaint-affidavit.
They claimed the activity was done in the guise of giving “ayuda” (cash aid) or scholarship.
The vote-buying activity was allegedly done using a “stub” or “ticket” scheme in Lin’s three headquarters in Barangay San Bartolome in Quezon City.
Garcia lauded the first ever official vote-buying complaint they received since Comelec created its anti-vote-buying Taskforce as a sign of “awakening” citizenry on the importance of keeping the conduct of the elections clean.
However, he stressed the presumption of innocence of the accused should never be compromised as mandated by the Constitution.