By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
A day or two before the election, the expected landslide winner, a veteran politician, in the locality already knew he was going to lose. Reports from the ground say his presumed landslide victory would be overcome by “landslide” vote buying. As high as P5K was the going price. That would be about the cost of two cavans of rice or the rice requirement of an average Filipino family for two or three months.
The veteran politician said he will not play the game.
In the same place, a barangay kagawad was campaigning for that veteran politician. But one week before the election, he flipped to the other side. His car was seen going around the barangay full of posters of his “new” candidate. The amount of P20K might be reasonable for his sudden change of heart. P3K for an ordinary voter and P20K for a barangay official?
We had been hearing about the same amounts being paid out in the run up to the election in so many other places.
Then there was the religious group known for its members supposedly voting as a block in accordance with the instructions of their elders. With big money, that would have been the easiest to accomplish. All you would have done was “talk and deliver” to a few church leaders.
Votes have become that cheap these difficult times.
Very revealing on the maturity of voters in Benguet is the fact that so many lawyer candidates lost to those who are not. All over the province, a lot of money was being given away to those who could prove they are voters in the province. A voter’s ID was the only requirement. The “buying candidate” said the money was “ayuda” or like the dole out during calamities.
Well, the voters in the province might be more matured than we thought. They might know that lawyers can be too smart for their own good only, forgetting about the welfare of their constituents.
As usual so many opposing candidates everywhere are relatives or they belong to the same clan. In their quest for political power, they had foregone kinship.
Perhaps, they are believers of what Henry Kissinger once said, “political power is the most potent aphrodisiac.” Hope I quoted that right, after all these decades.
The saddest stories though are the losers who were actually the most qualified. They lost because the voters were stupid or the candidates were poor and they could not go head to head in the buying of votes. Or simply because they did not like to play dirty.
The biggest losers as far as the “ayudas” were concerned were the members of a religious group who don’t vote as part of their beliefs.
A friend posted on FB right after a substantial number of votes were counted showing the massive number of votes for BBM, Sara and Robin Padilla: GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES.
If you think most of our voters are stupid, the only solution to that as I wrote last week is proper education. Without that, we will keep on electing candidates who are bad for our welfare.
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