A multi-sectoral approach of increasing the risk of detection as deterrence to vote buying and vote selling /
Fernando F. Cot-om.
- 50 leaves
Public Management and Development Program
Vote buying and vote selling are prevalent during elections so much so that they are considered as "cancers" of the society. They remain pervasive despite the presence of government institutions that declared the acts as illegal and punishable by the severe penalties imprisonment and disqualification from public office. Various groups and organizations from the private sector intervened to influence the behaviors of the violators and potential violators but the act still continue. According to studies, surveys, and interviews conducted, the percentage of the voters believed to have been bribed or influenced by vote buying and vote selling ranges from 30 to 79.2 percent. Aside from lack of education, hardships in life and low morality, pervasiveness of vote buying and vote selling is attributed to the weak enforcement of existing laws against such acts. This manifested in the findings that people do not file complaints despite seeing the acts of buying and selling of votes. This was also evident with the police not taking a proactive stance to go after the vote buyers, especially the big ones. Because of weak law enforcement, not a single case of vote buying or vote selling complaint was filed with that Provincial and City Fiscals offices in Central Luzon for the past three elections. Likewise, the Two hundred and twenty (220) complaints of vote buying filed in the COMELEC thru its Law Department for the past three National and Local Elections appeared to be small considering the numerous accounts of vote buying activities as reported by media and election observers. To help address the problem of vote buying and vote selling, this paper on the aspect of improving the enforcement of anti-vote buying and vote selling laws which is within the COMELEC's power it complies with its mandate of conducting a peaceful, honest, clean, credible, free, and fair elections. Specifically, this paper looked into the possible policies for implementation so that vote buyers and vote sellers would be deterred from violating the laws. The paper employed a systematic approach in its analysis and evaluation. Additionally, primary data was gathered from key informant interviews with a lawyer from the and from the COMELEC IPD Law Department and from voters themselves. This paper identifies three (3) policy options to address the problem. First is the creation of Multi-Sectoral Network Against Vote buying and Vote Selling with the objective of enhancing the probability of detection and apprehension of violators and the filing of cases. Second is the proposal for COMELEC to recommend to congress for the amendment Sec. 264 of B.P. Blg. 881 for the lowering of the prison term for vote buying and vote selling to encourage prosecution and conviction of violators. Third is to maintain the status quo but with improvements investigation and prosecution process. Among the options proposed, the creation of Multi-Sectoral Network Against Vote buying and Vote Selling emerged as the best action based on the Cost-Benefit Analysis made. It also finds support in the theories stating that the law enforcement is effective when the probability of detection of the crime, apprehension of the offenders, and the filing of cases against them are enhanced. Offenders or potential offenders will be deterred when the cost of committing the crime outweigh the utility benefits the utility benefits that they get from it. With the adoption of proposed policy, more people will no longer watch vote buying activities. On the other hand, they will be documenting, reporting, and filing complaints as the mechanism to do it is readily available to them. The presence of the police will also be intensified to prevent illegal acts and arrest the violators. With all of this in place, potential violators will be deterred from committing the crime. This paper concluded that the benefits that our society will be as a result of the implementation of the proposed action are immeasurable and far-reaching. The accompanying additional expenses and efforts of all those involved are nothing considering the resultant benefits. This is an additional workload, but it is worth the sacrifice it is the best doable action to take. After all, it is said that true integrity in elections is possible when strong laws are paired with strong enforcement.
Elections--Philippines. Prevention of corrupt practices in elections. Election and Ethics.