The winning candidates for Barangay Chairmen in Quezon City's District IV allegedly used ghost ballots with votes already pre-shaded, aside from supposedly paying voters with money from a lawmaker disguised as a Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation, a social welfare service of the DSWD.
Ghost ballots refer to ballots already filled with the candidates' names, with ballots already inside the ballot boxes.
In Barangay Pinyahan alone, three candidates garnered a total vote count of 9,550, compared to the 2022 mayoralty race of only 8,309 votes.
A village chairman questioned the numbers and thinks the number of votes cast was way beyond the previous polls.
He believes the village has an estimated 13 to 14,000 voters, but only 45 to 55 percent participated in the electoral process, leaving around 7,000 votes left to be counted.
The winning candidate Ricardo Villaflor won by garnering 5,340 votes against his opponent Jesus Lipnica Jr. who got 4,135 votes while the third candidate only got 75 votes.
"That's over 9,000 votes already, where in fact in 2022 the mayoralty race has a total of little over 8,000," the village chief questioned.
The village chairman who wished not to be named for fear of reprisal, said a lawmaker in the district started distributing assistance money through AICS-DSWD, telling the beneficiaries to vote for his candidates in the BSKE.
The lawmaker's candidates, he added, were also present during the pay-out of AICS.
This is aside from the promise of candidates that P2,000 to P3,000 will allegedly be given to them if they would serve as watchers in the coming polls.