OPPOSITION Councilor and Angeles City mayoralty aspirant Carmelo Lazatin Jr. has implored the Commission on Elections (Comelec), hilippine National Police (PNP), Department of Education (DepEd), and the citizens to aid in putting a stop to the alleged massive vote buying of the camp of Vice Mayor and mayoralty bet Bryan Nepomuceno and his running mate, Councilor Edgardo Pamintuan Jr.
The alleged vote buying was revealed in a 20-minute long audio recording of one of the meetings of supporters of the Nepomuceno camp.
The audio recording was played during a press conference and featured what sounded to be a man addressing a crowd and explaining an "exit poll" strategy for massive vote-buying, which involves a "tagging system" where people who voted for candidates of the Nepomuceno camp will wear ribbons around their wrists and rising sun stickers to be easily identified by their poll watchers.
Everyone wearing the identifying tags will then be listed by poll watchers and submitted to exit poll stations to be listed in a log book, it was heard on the audio recording.
According to the speaker in the recording, the day after the elections, provided that the Nepomuceno camp wins, everyone whose names are listed in the log book will receive P1,000 as a bonus.
Speaking in front of the media, Lazatin asked Comelec and DepEd to be extra vigilant in watching out for individuals bearing the aforementioned tags and to make sure that there will be no excessive rotation of poll watchers.
Lazatin also called on the PNP to be watchful of exit poll stations where these log books can be found and install checkpoints to watch out for voters bearing the identifying tags.
Lazatin also appealed to the citizens of Angeles City to help in combating massive vote buying by keeping a watchful eye on their communities and immediately alerting authorities about any similar incident.
He also implored voters not to allow themselves to be used in this massive vote buying strategy.
"Sa mga tao po na nililinlang ng mga kalaban ko na bibigyan ng P1,000 pag nanalo, huwag po tayong pagamit. Hindi po totoo yang bibigyan kayo. Panlilinlang at pinapaasa lang po kayo nyan," Lazatin said.