By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Police arrested 30 suspects between Sunday and yesterday, along with confiscating P139,000 in cash, after they were caught in a vote buying scheme in two Negros Occidental towns.

Lieutenant Col. Adrian Acolador, who leads Task Force Molai, an acronym made up of Moises Padilla, La Castellana, and Isabela, 28 people, including three minors, were arrested last Sunday in Moises Padilla.

The law enforcement official said they seized 12 sample ballots, each with two P500 bills attached; along with at least 600 loose sample ballots following a series of raids in town Barangays Poblacion and Odiong.

Police also seized a passenger jeepney from Pulupandan.

The suspects face charges of vote buying and violating the Omnibus Election Code, which bans partisan political activity one day before the polls.

Meanwhile, EB Magalona Municipal Police Station officer-in-charge, Police Captain Jaynick Bermudez, said brothers Jocel and Daniel Etang were intercepted and arrested early Monday morning by the police in the town’s Barangay Tuburan for violating the Omnibus Election Code.

Bermudez said the Etang brothers yielded 127 brown envelopes containing a sample ballot with the names of EB Magalona mayoral bet, Negros Occidental Provincial Board Member David Lacson, along with his partymates, each attached with P1,000 in cash.

The brothers tried to evade arrest while aboard a motorcycle but were held by members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team members.

The suspects told investigators that they received the money from a person they claimed to not know in Barangay Lugway, Silay City./DGB, WDJ