For Quezon City 5th district Rep. Alfred Vargas, poll-related offenses like syndicated vote-buying and cyber vote-buying must be defined under the Batas Pambansa (BP) Blg. 881 or the Omnibus Election Code.

In a statement over the weekend, Vargas lamented how the provisions in the decades-old have become stale especially in the age of the Internet.

“These provisions are over 30 years old. Sadly, those who seek to undermine the people’s right to vote have devised newer, more nefarious schemes that employ syndicated operations and modern technology,” he said.

“If we were to uphold the integrity of the electoral process and protect the people’s right to suffrage, then the law must evolve,” added Vargas, who has filed a bill to pursue the needed changes in the Omnibus Election Code.

The Vargas bill defines syndicated vote -buying and cyber vote-buying as two new offenses. The congressman claimed that these acts have been widely documented in Quezon City's 5th district, and have been ascribed to an "outsider candidate acting in conspiracy with local accomplices".

Vargas said in the explanatory note of his proposed "Integrity of Suffrage Act of 2022” that the intensity of vote-buying in his district is “unprecedented".

Citing “ground reports, voluminous video and photograph records, and sworn statements", Vargas said these vote-buying operations “work through a ‘pyramiding system’ where there is an active recruitment of networks of vote-buying accomplices".

Vargas said the vote-buying scheme utilizes identification cards with QR codes, stubs, and tickets, and are disguised as pandemic-related aid, scholarships, and fuel cards.

“Cash, however, remains to be the predominant mode of vote-buying, with P500 bills given inside brown envelops to voters in the candidate’s operation center which are guarded by armed security. Vote-buying is, therefore, conducted as a syndicate, making the crime even more aggravated,” he claimed.

Vargas also said in his bill that he has received reports that vote-buying efforts have “innovated", using new technologies such as money remittance applications and online banking.

“Hence, there is a need for the law to catch up and cover these crimes and amendments are critical in view of the limitations of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012,” he said.

The proposed measure seeks to amend Section 261 of the Omnibus Election Code by punishing the act of vote-buying through a syndicate with not less than five years to not more than 10 years of imprisonment.

The Vargas bill also punishes cyber vote-buying, which is defined as vote buying “committed by, through and with the use of information and communications technologies, including but not exclusive to websites, software, and applications for online banking and money remittances".

Under the bill, the penalty for cyber vote-buying shall be imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than 10 years.

“It should be emphasized that vote-buying is an exploitation of the poor, the vulnerable, and the marginalized. Vote-buying is a sabotage of sovereign will. This exploitation is especially repugnant now, considering that it abuses the Filipino people who have been left desperate by the socioeconomic shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he pointed out.

The three-term congressman added that the stronger penalties should deter candidates and their co-conspirators from damaging the integrity of the electoral process.

"We cannot, in good conscience, neglect flagrant and publicly open vote-buying operations. This bill is a commitment to the good and the just and, if passed into law, will serve as a tangible contribution to clean and credible elections for years and generations to come," Vargas said.