Employees of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) stood behind their chairperson amid bribery allegations thrown at the official.
About 5,000 Comelec employees backed Chairperson Erwin Garcia as he faced bribery allegations ahead of the May 2025 national, local, and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) polls.
“We agree with Chairman Garcia that this is a well-oiled demolition job that is clearly meant to erode the public's trust on the automated election system,” Comelec Employees’ Union (Comelec-EU) said Tuesday.
“As election frontliners, we can not stand idly by as our beloved institution and our leaders are maligned with allegations and insinuations that are so blatantly unfounded and absurd,” Comelec-EU added.
The employees said that the attack was “not a mere attack on Garcia and the Comelec” but a “direct affront to the credibility of the elections that we have worked so hard to uphold and preserve.”
Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta earlier alleged that at least P1 billion worth of funds were transferred from South Korean-based banks to 49 offshore accounts supposedly linked to Garcia.
Garcia said the allegations further claimed that he holds numerous bank accounts across various banks in Singapore, North America, China, and the Caribbean.
On 8 July, Garcia asked the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the allegations.
Garcia also asked the Anti-Money Laundering Council to probe the allegations that he was accepting bribes from a South Korean firm through offshore banks.
On Monday, the LandBank of the Philippines and Metro Bank confirmed that none of Garcia’s personal savings accounts allegedly opened and maintained in the two banks were existent.
The said bank accounts are allegedly tied to bribery claims.