o to any popular coffee shop and chances are the place is abuzz with matters political. Who are running? Who is running with whom? Who will probably win? Etcetera. Etcetera.
The government project contractors are particularly very interested on such matters. If the people they know will win, then they will be assured of projects to work on. Conversely, if the politicians they rooted for would lose, they might have to come to terms with having to find other businesses to run.
Why is it that it is the winning candidates’ people who always win in the bidding out of government contracts? It is because the bidding process is always rigged. Those in power will always make sure it is their friends who get the contracts so they could have a share from the profits of the contractors. To them, it would not really matter if the projects would be substandard.
This is called corruption. And it happens because of us.
We are not wise voters. We vote not on the merits, but on basis of what we can get from a candidate if he wins. The ordinary voter would usually remember if a candidate passed by and bought him some merienda. Even better if the politician bought some hard liquor with “pulutan” for the “barkada” to partake in the nearby sari-sari store.
Sometimes the distribution of a few kilos of rice and some paracetamol pills would do the trick.
The wiser voters are not taken just by these things. Some cash must change hands. More so if the voters have some influence in their respective localities.
Long story short, a politicians has to do a lot corruption to recoup his costs. And he has to again prepare for the next one after about three years. He has to amass or steal more funds so he will have a good chance.
At least these voters are getting something. But the vast majority of voters are not intelligent enough. They will just vote for their “idol” defending him as to any allegation of corruption even if proven in a court of law and the politician was convicted. They will say, “the decision was cooked.”
With such vast majority of voters in this country, the future is bleak. Perhaps the constitutional consultants should have put a provision in the proposed PDu30 constitution that a voter should at least be a college graduate from a respectable school, not from a diploma mill.**