Faith-based movement to campaign against vote-buying, abuses ahead of 2025 polls

The PASALORD Prayer Movement on Tuesday launched its voter’s education campaign against vote-buying and election abuses ahead of the 2025 General Elections.

PASALORD Movement founder Bing Pimentel noted how ballots are treated as commodities that are “sold to the highest bidder.”

“With that piece of paper ballot, for the first time sa lahat ng buhay ng Pilipino, pantay-pantay ang lahat… sa isang balota na sana ingatan po natin,” she said at the event in Club Filipino in San Juan City.

(With that piece of paper ballot, for the first time in the lives of all Filipinos, everybody is equal… in one ballot that we will hopefully safeguard.)

“If [vote-buying] is the mindset of our countrymen, kawawa ang bayan natin, (our country will end up miserable..)” she added.

Pimentel believes a person’s faith can change the environment of politics and the election in the country.

“Yes we can, dahil ang prayer is the most powerful weapon in the whole world,” said Pimentel.

Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) founder and National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) pioneer Christian Monsod stated that God is in all parts of the Philippine Constitution, while stressing the importance of the quality of votes.

“We are talking about the use of money in elections, government money… what’s the point of the elections if you have no real choices?” he said.

Monsod, one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution, asked why the poor, which he says make up 70% of the country’s population, would not take control of government by the power of the ballot.

“Many communities where there are poor and there are rich people work together for those who have the means [to] help those who are in need during the pandemic. In other words, transformation can come from below… the poor must control the barangays,” he said.

Meanwhile, LENTE Executive Director Atty. Ona Caritos emphasized the urgency of blocking the transfer of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) from 2025 to 2029 to avoid prolonged terms in power.

The event also prayed for the well-being of the 2025 elections and the close to 69 million registered Filipino voters.

Bishop Rudy Juan of UMC - CBMC and PASALORD President Pastor King Flores were part of the panel. —RF, GMA Integrated News