MANILA — An inter-faith group on Tuesday urged the public to pray for the Philippines’ 2025 midterm elections as vote-buying schemes are expected to be rampant ahead of the polls.

In some communities, votes and ballots have become “a commodity that goes to the highest bidder,” said PASALORD Prayer Movement founder Bing Pimentel, the wife of late Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr.

“We will tell our brothers and sisters who will vote in the coming elections to please stop vote buying, stop selling your vote,” she said in a press conference in San Juan City.

“If that is the mindset of our countrymen, kawawa ang bayan natin,” she said.

In the 2022 elections, some votes were sold between P1,000 and P35,000 per position, data from the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) showed.

“Because of the transition to using machines, nagkaroon tayo ng bagong at mas malaking problema: The value of the vote has increased exponentially,” said LENTE Executive Director Ona Caritos.

“You can just imagine how much people can get for a complete slate… Kaya ang dami nating kababayan na umuuwi para bumoto kasi they earn on election day,” she said.

There are also indirect forms of vote buying, such as the distribution of dole outs and cash aid from the government months before an election, Caritos said.

“The budget is being transferred to giving social welfare programs of the government. Ito yung tinatawag namin na massive vote buying,” she said.

“Unfortunately, it is being used now by some people in government to further introduce themselves,” she said.

Issues in Philippine elections stem from “not just the process” but “also the quality of the vote,” said 1987 Constitution framer Christian Monsod.

“We would like to very much address this because what is the point of elections if you have no real choices,” he said.

“Since the colonial days, we have the problem of feudalism, of political dynasties occupying offices… Until we have a new generation of leaders who come from the poor, we will not have true transformation,” he said.

The PASALORD’s “Call to Prayer for 2025 Election” seeks to “mobilize as many Filipinos” to pray for clean and fair elections, said the group’s president Pastor King Flores.

“Sana ngayon we can start to mobilize as many Filipinos as we can para tulungan tayong ipagdasal na tama ang ating piliin na iluklok sa eleksyon,” he said.

“Hindi natin kontrolado ang gagawin ng mga kandidato, but God can,” he said.

The PASALORD inter-faith group said it hoped Filipinos would choose leaders who have good character, competence and courage.

“Sana makapili tayo ng character na walang attachment sa pera,” Flores said.

“Ang courage kailangan… kasi kapag mayroong oposisyon at ikaw na lang ang nakaharap na magisa at wala kang courage, kadalasan bumibigay, sumasabay na lang sa agos,” he said.

Filipino voters are expected to troop to polling stations in May 2025 and choose 12 senators, one party-list, and several local officials such as congressional members, governors, mayors and councilors.

The Commission on Elections earlier said that some 18,000 positions are up for grabs in the upcoming midterm elections.