As the government prepares for the barangay (village) and Sanguniang Kabataan (youth council) elections in May, lawyers have started finding numerous cases of voter fraud.
Election lawyer Romeo Macalintal told ABS-CBN News yesterday that a tip from a client led him to discover that over 275 voters registered using the same address in Pasay City.
And where exactly were these 275 voters living? At the Taft LRT station, apparently.
We know that things can get hectic at the train stations, with its long lines, frequent breakdowns, and accidents, but pretty sure we haven’t seen people taking up residence there.
“I can’t understand how you can live there because that is an LRT station. That is proof that some people lie about being residents of Pasay in their application for registration as voter,” Macalintal said.
We don’t understand either.
While this might seem strange for those who aren’t familiar with Philippine elections, voters like these are actually pretty common and are known as “flying voters.”
Flying voters are people who are paid to register and vote in villages or cities apart from their own.
Macalintal’s investigation also found that 330 voters registered using the address of the same small apartment along Zamora st., while another 207 registered with the address of a cell phone company.
ABS-CBN News found that over 1,500 Pasay voters registered with addresses they didn’t live at or places that are outright impossible to live in.
Pasay City’s election officer Ramon Rosello said they would follow up on the addresses of these registered voters, but said their office was short of manpower.
