Politicians, parties warned vs scammers

MANILA, Philippines —  With the midterm elections still more than a year away, fake offers to manipulate poll results are becoming rampant, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

“We have been monitoring people with ill intentions going around and making deceitful offers that the person can talk to the Comelec provider,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia said.

Garcia said these unscrupulous individuals are asking exorbitant fees in exchange for manipulating election results in just five minutes.

The scammers are now operating in various parts of the country, according to the Comelec chief.

“This is a warning to all candidates and government officials: don’t fall for and talk to these people,” the Comelec chief said.

He added that those individuals are making false promises, and the Comelec would not hesitate to have them arrested and prosecuted.

There is also no truth to claims that election results can be manipulated with the help of the Comelec’s Information and Technology Department and the new automated election system provider Miru Systems Ltd., according to Garcia.

“They are all just fooling you to get money. It’s not realistic,” he said.

Last week, the Comelec declared the Joint Venture of Miru Systems Co. Ltd., Integrated Computer Systems, St. Timothy Construction Corp and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies Inc. as the winning bidder for the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count or FASTrAC project.