Is a Northern Luzon party-list buying votes in Baguio and Benguet towns? The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Baguio office is set to find out.

On Wednesday, Baguio election supervisor Atty. John Paul Martin vowed to dispatch a verification team to investigate the issue after personally seeing photographs showing what appeared to be party-list membership cards being distributed alongside ₱100 bills at an undetermined location in Benguet.

Martin, alongside government officials, had just launched Comelec’s drive against vote-buying, vote-selling, and other election offenses at the Melvin Jones Grandstand on Wednesday.

Last week, the poll body launched its "Committee on Kontra Bigay" campaign, describing it as a "fortified version" of the Kontra Bigay Task Force from 2022. Comelec promised stronger safeguards, clearer regulations, and stricter enforcement mechanisms to combat vote-buying. It warned that vote sellers and buyers could face one to six years of imprisonment and disqualification for candidates found guilty of the offense.

Comelec Cordillera Regional Director Atty. Julius Torres also vowed that they would activate their committee against vote-buying and vote-selling, underscoring the poll body’s determination to curb this election malpractice.

In a follow up inquiry with Martin, the election officer said he saw names on the membership ID cards corresponding to registered voters from Benguet. He said they will conduct deeper probe to look into the truthfulness of the report.