The Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) on Monday, Oct. 30, were generally peaceful nationwide despite a few reported incidents of violence, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia said.

In a press conference, Garcia said that no election-related violence was recorded in the 365 areas tagged under the red category. He added that they were surprised that incidents of violence occurred in Nunungan, Lanao del Norte, and Butig, Lanao del Sur, which were not under the red category. 

"Pag tiningnan niyo pa rin, maliit na porsiyento pa rin yung nagkaroon ng disruption as against doon sa natuloy ang ating halalan (When you look it, this disruption is a small percentage against to the elections that pushed through). And to us that's a victory of sort," Garcia explained. 

As of this posting, Comelec has not yet released the exact figures of the voter turnout but Garcia said that they expected it to reach the 70 to 75 percent range. Then again, the poll chief said that the figures were not an indicator of the election's success since voting is the call of citizens, if they will avail of it or not. Based on what the poll body has seen, people have been interested in voting. 

Asked if the poll body's stringent measures and efforts were effective in changing the landscape of the elections, Garcia said that it's hard to comment on it being the ones who enforced it. But seeing that the environment as tidier even during the campaign period is a different kind of accomplishment.

"May nasimulan tayong kakaiba na matagal na pong hinahanap ng ating mga kababayan (We started something that the public has been looking for in a long time)," he said.

Pilot projects and general assessment

Meanwhile, Garcia said that its pilot projects--mainly the mall voting scheme and the early voting hours for Persons With Disability (PWDs), senior citizens, and pregnant women--were successful.

"Ang mall voting, naging napakaayos ang naging reklamo nila sobrang lamig. Samantalang sa mga pinanggalingan natin, napakainit at pinagpapawisan ang mga botante. Just the same, yun ang distinction at difference ng mall voting at sa eskwelahan (Mall voting was very organized, the voters only complained that it was really cold. But in the areas visited it was humid and people were really having a hard time. But that's the difference between mall voting and voting in schools)," he said.

On the other hand, the early voting hours that were only imposed in Muntinlupa and Naga City proved to be successful for the vulnerable sector.

Comelec also conducted a pilot test of automated BSKE in two barangays in Cavite, which were Barangay Zone II Poblacion and Barangay Paliparan III in Dasmariñas City and Barangay Pasong Tamo in the sixth district of Quezon City. Paper jams hampered the process.

He said the incident showed that the Comelec En Banc was not wrong in declaring unusable all of its 97,000 machines. Garcia said that they handpicked 1,000 machines to show the difference of automated and manual voting.

Comelec also encountered the perennial problem of missing names on the master list and difficulty in finding precincts. He said that Comelec found 491,000 multiple registrants and these were given notices.

The precinct finder also went offline a few times due to the sheer number of people who inquired the morning on election day.

Garcia said that they turned it off for three minutes every hour as a way to to prevent hacking.

"We have to do that kind of process para masigurado protected lahat 92 million data ng voters na nasa precinct finder (to ensure that the 92 million data of voters are protected). Napaka effective po ng precinct finder. Kulang two million nag inquire. Nakakatuwa na halos lahat sila nakita pangalan nila (The precint finder was very effective. Almost two million people inquired. It's great to know that almost everyone found their name)," he said.
 

Vote buying

Commissioner Ernesto Maceda Jr. who heads the Committee on Kontra Bigay, said that as of posting time, there have been a total of 168 reports. Out of these, 28 total cases have been filed prior to the end of election day while 46 were expected to be filed anytime on Monday. 

They were evaluating for further evidence the 94 other ccases.

"Napakalaking bagay po nito kung ituturing natin na noong 2022 elections there were 1,200 plus complaints of vote-buying (This is a big thing considering that in the 2022 elections,  there were 1,200 plus complaints of vote-buying)," he said.

"Marami rin ho tayong naririnig (We are hearing a lot of things) here and there about vote buying incidents supposedly happening but not of them actually formalized. In fact, as of today we have not received any formal complaint. You draw your conclusions from that but for us this is a very positive and encouraging sign that our efforts have borne fruit and we are very grateful for the participation of our stakeholders," he added.

For digital vote buying, Garcia said that there are still no reports of anyone using GCash or Paymaya to give away cash in exchange for votes.

Addressing complaints

On the other hand, Garcia also added that addressing the complaints of voters encouraged them to report any suspicious behavior in their communities. 

"Dati-rati po laging reklamo natin nagrereklamo ka sa Comelec di naman inaaksyunan. Ngayon po inaksyunan namin pinakita namin, ginanahan sila magreport nang magreport (Before voters were always complaining that their grievances weren't being acted on. Now that they saw that we were acting on it, the reports kept coming)." 

"I think bringing back the trust of our people to our electoral process is what is more important because if the people's trust in our electoral process is not there regardless of any changes o any modification or transformation that you are going to do di po nila tatanggapin eh (they will not accept it)," he added.

Once the smoke clears, Garcia ensured that those who committed different acts to disrupt the elections will answer to the law. He specifically cited those who destroyed official ballots, threatened electoral board (EB) members, and even the politicians who interfered with the elections especially in in Mindanao.

"Nakuhanan sila ng video and pictures at alam natin lahat ginawa nila. Pabayaan natin tapusin muna pagbilang nila (We took videos and pictures of what they did. Let's just give them time to finish counting)," he said.