THE May 9 elections for provincial and local elective officials have fallen short of “being fair and honest” due to rampant vote-buying and disinformation.

Two days before the May 9 elections, reports from election monitoring groups said money ranging from P20 to P5,000 have flooded the communities in Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, and Lanao del Norte.

“Runners” on motorcycles distributed the money at night and in the wee hours of dawn to voters during the weekend before the May 9 elections.

A local politician told this reporter he spent P150 million to buy the voters. He won by a wide margin of votes.

Art Bonjoc, a former journalist said what was disturbing was the voters stayed up late for the arrival of these runners who were bringing the money.

“The voters waited into the night. They have no qualms that what they are doing was wrong,” Bonjoc said.

Bonjoc who now works as a media consultant said vote-buying helped the politicians who were ahead in the surveys a lot.

He said once the money was received, the voters wrote in the ballots whatever was on the list of names given by the voters to them.

Bonjoc said in the process, politicians who lead in the surveys but did not engage in vote-buying lost to those who doled out money to the voters.

A report made by the International Observer Mission (IOM), which was sponsored by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, said the May 9 elections were marred by rampant vote-buying, violence, disinformation, and a disturbing level of “red-tagging” against the opposition politicians.

The OIM report was based on observations of how the elections were conducted in Central Luzon, Southern Luzon, Central Visayas, Western Visayas, and Mindanao.

In Lanao del Sur, reporters saw teachers filling up the ballots in Sultan Conding Elementary School inside the campus of the state-run Mindanao State University on May 9.

At the same school, reporters also saw soldiers applying the indelible ink on the fingernails of the voters who had just voted because the teachers failed to apply them.

In neighboring Malabang town, three persons were killed in just a matter of hours after violence erupted in the polling places on election day.

The Commission on Elections declared a failure of elections in 15 villages in Tubaran town because the supporters of two mayoral candidates have become unruly.

In the lead-up to the May 9 polls, social media and airwaves became a major battleground for the politicians vying for the provincial and local electives positions.

Cong Corrales, editor in chief of Mindanao Gold Star Daily and local coordinator of the #FactsFirstPH initiative said they detected a surge of disinformation and fake news starting the end of March towards the May 9 elections.

Corrales said while most disinformation and fake news monitored targeted candidates for national positions, a percentage is also busy targeting local candidates.

“Unfortunately we can not monitor all the traffic because we only have two staff members,” Corrales said.

The news organization, coalitions, civil society groups, business organizations, research, and legal groups banded together to form #FactsFirstPH to counter disinformation and fake news online during the elections.

This small army of fact-checkers scrutinizes disinformation and fake news in the presidential race but nobody is around to check at the provincial and local levels.

Corrales said they were only able to check one local fake news on Facebook out of many similar posts during the campaign period.

He said disinformation was also rampant in the local radio station where the airwaves are largely unchecked.

Corrales said most of the disinformation is belted out by radio commentators who are paid “block timers” of local politicians.

“It was really frustrating to hear how radio played a role in the disinformation campaign,” Corrales said.

Corrales mentioned how Cagayan de Oro incumbent Congressman Rolando Uy filed 11 cases of cyber libel against Councilor and radio broadcaster Zaldy Ocon for allegedly imputing that Uy was a drug lord during his radio program.

Ocon surrendered to the police in Bukidnon after a court in Cagayan de Oro found probable cause in the complaint. He paid P500,000 bail for his temporary liberty.

Uy won in the May 9 elections and has been elected as mayor of Cagayan de Oro.

Neptalie Batolenio, chair of the National Union Journalists of the Philippines chapter in Misamis Occidental said poor wages among local community-based journalists make them susceptible to unethical practices.

Batolenio said local town mayors recruit reporters to handle their radio programs, which they sponsored on local stations.

“Here in Misamis Occidental, radio reporters are paid P300 a day to anchor these radio programs,” Batolenio said.

He said almost all town mayors and politicians here have the radio programs that they used to spread disinformation and fake news against their opponents.

Batolenio said a one-hour radio program would cost around P50 thousand a month.

He said the battle of disinformation in the airwaves was so intense that when a local politician calls for a press conference, only those on his payroll are invited.

“So what happened during the campaign, the voters were not able to listen to real issues because the airwaves are flooded with disinformation and fake news,” Batolenio said. (This story is supported by a grant from Internews)