Candidates claiming they had been approached by a poll rigging syndicate to ensure their victory in the May 10, 2010 automated elections may have been victimized by the "budol-budol" gang.

Atty. Romulo Macalintal, a known election lawyer, said this during a public forum in Manila Tuesday.

“Those saying they have been approached, it may be a case of budol-budol,” Macalintal said.

He said it’s possible that these people who offered to rig the polls in exchange for a certain amount of money are not really capable of rigging the elections.

Macalintal then went on to explain how the budol-budol gang operates

“I’ll go to candidate A and ask for P50 million for him to win the polls... I’ll then go to his opponent, candidate B, and ask for P50 million also to do the same. Both of them gave me P50 million. I’ll then go to my bank and deposit it. I’ll wait for the result of the elections,” he said.

“If candidate B wins, I’ll tell him see it worked. I still have my P50 million.

Then I’ll go back to candidate B and say sorry, it did not work I’ll just return P40 million of your money because of the expenses we incurred. I think that’s what happened there,” added Macalintal.

He said those who did not bite the offer should be thankful or they might have been one of the victims of the syndicate.

But Macalintal said that if such an offer was really made to some candidates, these government officials should have immediately reported it to the authorities so they can be entrapped.

“That’s the obligation of a public servant. If you are a concerned citizen or a government official and somebody approaches you regarding poll cheating and you didn’t do anything… you committed a sin because you did not do anything for your country,” he said.

“You really deserve to lose the election if that’s the kind of attitude you’ll show to our country,” added Macalintal.

On Monday, losing Surigao del Norte gubernatorial bet Robert Ace Barbers appeared before the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms hearing and claimed that a man approached him sometime in November, 2009 offering his group's services at a cost of P50 million to ensure his victory at the polls.

Barbers said the man assured him the results of the elections could be rigged, and that this would be done by switching compact flash cards after the final testing and sealing.