Construction worker, minor nabbed in Negros Occidental for vote buying

NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines – Village officials in Tibsoc, San Enrique town intercepted a construction worker and a minor while on their way to deliver an envelop to a resident of the same barangay Sunday night, May 8.

The town police office report said barangay officials had flagged down the duo who were on board a motorcycle.

When they checked, they found a plastic bag with an envelop marked with party-list No. 99 Uswag Ilonggo. Inside was a shaded sample ballot, P2,000 cash, party-list leaflets of Uswag Ilonngo, and a Samsung phone, the police said.

Officials immediately held Dindo Tolosa, 56, of the town’s Brgy Poblacion, and a minor, whose name was withheld by the police.

The suspect is now under the custody of San Enrique police while the minor was turned over to the Women and Children Protection Desk.

Brgy. Kagawad (council member) Juno Benitez said he was with some tanods (roving community volunteer guards) patrolling the community when they saw the suspects on board a tricycle.

Tolosa, he added, refused to name the person waiting to receive the packet.

Hunting for money

In Hinigaran town, Mayor Nadie Arceo declared a a 10 pm to 4 am curfew on May 4 after armed men ransacked the houses of two kagawads of Barangay 1, Hinigaran town.

The suspects said they were searching for “election money” that they had heard was with the barangay officials.

When they got nothing from the victims, identified as Marciano Dizon and Jose Froilan Yap, they took the kagawads’ cellphones and fled.

A total of 87 gun ban violators have been arrested in Negros Occidental, and 19 more in the province’s independent capital Bacolod City from January 9 to May this year, according to Negros Occidental Police Office records.

The province, including its capital, represents more than half of the 200 gun ban violations recorded in Western Visayas

Bacolod Elections Officer Revo Sorbito, meanwhile, asked Bacolod residents with vote-buying complaints to submit evidence so the local Commission on Elections office can take action.

Sorbito made the response as netizens claimed on Sunday that candidates in the city’s hotly-contested race were offering from P1,500 to P2,000. A few reported that in some barangays, the offers had hit P5,000. – Rappler.com