By LEYTE-SAMAR DAILY EXPRESS
TACLOBAN CITY.—Vote-buying marred the conduct of the special elections in Barangay Buenos Aires, Pagsanghan town, Samar Thursday with amounts reportedly reaching as high as P20,000 per voter.
Jose Nick Mendros, Commission on Elections regional director, admitted the Comelec could not do anything to prosecute those responsible for vote-buying as no individual would come out in the open to complain.
“We cannot conduct a house-to-house investigation just to ask the people if they received such (amount of money),” Mendros said.
Samar Elections Supervisor Corazon Montallana said she also received information of massive vote-buying in Buenos Aires.
She said based on the information she received, the amount dangled by candidates ranged from P10,000 up to P20,000.
The results of the special elections in Barangay Buenos Aires were vital in determining the winners for local positions.
The special elections started at 7 a.m. and closed at 6 p.m. with 357 out of its 492 registered voters casting their votes, Mendros said.
Based on the Comelec results, mayoralty candidate Ruben Palma of Lakas-Kampi garnered 214 votes in Buenos Aires as against his lone rival, Jim Canones of the Liberal Party who obtained 143 votes.
Palma was declared mayor of the fifth-class town of Pagsanghan by the members of the municipal board of canvassers at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, garnering total votes of 2,960 as against the 2,182 votes obtained by his rival Canones.
Palma, a neophyte politician and engineer by profession, was said to have enjoyed the support of outgoing Samar Gov. Milagrosa Tan, who won as a congresswoman representing the second congressional district of Samar.
Tan was once suspended for 90 days by Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno for graft.
Palma’s running-mate, Alicia Repol, also won against her rival, former Mayor Violito Ceracas. Repol received 214 votes against Ceracas who got 140 votes.
Repol’s total votes were 2,243 as against the former town mayor votes of 1,969.
The Comelec ordered the holding of special elections in Pagsanghan after the official ballots intended for the barangay were inadvertently delivered to Barangay Generosa in Guimbal, Iloilo, forcing officials to call off the elections May 10.