Poll watchdog Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) disclosed on Wednesday, Oct. 26 that some job orders as a form of “legal” vote-buying by functioning as coordinators for purposes of electoral campaigns.

This finding was part of Lente's 12-week monitoring effort on the Abuse of State Resources (ASR) which according to the poll watchdog, is an overlooked form of political corruption in the Philippines. Lente said that candidates or political parties "unduly" utilize official powers and government resources to gain electoral advantage.

ASR involves different types of abuse which include abuse of financial resources, institutional resources, regulatory/legal resources, and coercive/enforcement resources.

Lente explained that over the course of their research, it learned the use of some job orders as a form of “legal” vote-buying. It added that under the Local Government Code, the local chief executives have the power to engage and hire job order personnel as early as a year prior to elections.

Due to this, part of the proposed recommendations of Lente in relation with this issue is the amendment of Section 261 (j) of the Omnibus Election Code to establish a mechanism for command responsibility in so far as the local chief executive /mayor is concerned, in the event that the perpetrator of ASR is a local government employee, or under a job order contract.

It also seeks the amendment of Comelec-CSC Joint Circular No. 1 S. 2016 or the Advisory on Electioneering and Partisan Political Activities to include job orders under the prohibition on engaging with Electioneering and Partisan Political Activities.

It also proposes a further study be conducted regarding the practice of some local government units using the provisions in Local Economic Enterprise to justify mass hiring of job order casuals.

"The abuse of institutional resources pertains to the misuse of a state’s physical resources such as infrastructures and vehicles," Lente said in a statement.

"Among the 127 voter respondents interviewed, only 25 percent observed ASR in their respective areas and their observation involved incumbent candidates who utilized government vehicles to transport supporters to campaign sorties and to distribute campaign materials within the locality. Likewise, the community leaders made a similar observation," it added.

On the other hand, Lente bared that abuse of financial resources usually takes the form of campaigns veiled as a distribution of social services. it mentioned that this is a more challenging proposition with respect to ASR, pertaining to the practice of muddling social services and campaigns.

"A number of respondents revealed that the most common observations in relation to this type of abuse is the presence of politicians during distribution of ayuda by DSWD and other government programs such as DOLE-TUPAd," the poll watchdog said.

Unfortunately, Lente stated that the general public had a hard time differentiating between legitimate social services and ASR by incumbent officials.