Without the Senate’s counterpart bill
for the postponement of the village poll, the barangay and SK (Youth) election
in May 14 this year is inevitable.
"Tapos na ang Senado, tapos na ang Kongreso. Wala na kami, e (inaudible). Tapos na iyong barangay election," Senator Cynthia Villar told me when I asked her last Friday about the absence of the counterpart bill from the Upper House and Congress already in recess and will be back into business a day before the poll.
"Tapos na ang Senado, tapos na ang Kongreso. Wala na kami, e (inaudible). Tapos na iyong barangay election," Senator Cynthia Villar told me when I asked her last Friday about the absence of the counterpart bill from the Upper House and Congress already in recess and will be back into business a day before the poll.
Everybody will be happy as of April this
year. Ingratiation and vote buying by the candidates for the village chiefs,
the council members, and even the parents of the SK or Sangguniang Kabataan
will be ubiquitous in every nook and cranny of the country.
A first class town mayor told me that
he will interfere by funding the candidacy of his village chiefs despite the
monies given by his rivals to those barangay kapitans.
“I’ll face them tit for tat. I’ll bid out the highest price they
can offer versus my chosen candidate,” he told
me.
The mayor is so rich that every
presidential and gubernatorial bets he wanted to win became victorious in his
town because aside from the wherewithals distributed by these candidates, he chipped
in with them his own personal monies he raked from his humongous businesses.
There was a time that his mayoralty
candidate defeated a rival funded by the governor and a congressman.
“Pera and accomplishments lang ang
labanan sa politika,” he crowed to us media men.
“How much and how many waves (about the number of times a P300,
P500, or P1000 can be used to buy votes) will be distributed to every enraptured
voter in your village?” I posed.
He said it depends upon the barangays.
He cited that the election in the Poblacion will go to millions of pesos. In other villages some candidate could just spend P200, 000.
He cited that the election in the Poblacion will go to millions of pesos. In other villages some candidate could just spend P200, 000.
Another hizzoner ( means His Honor the
Mayor, to the plumbers and tricycle drivers who read this colum) told me the high stake thrust is not the village polls but the presidency
of the Liga ng mga Barangay (League of Barangays) where winner becomes ex
officio or council member of the town or city's legislature just like the president of the entire SKs)
especially if the opposition are almost the same in number with the pro mayor
solons in the Sanguniang Bayan.
He cited that it will be in this
campaign and poll where the mayor shelled out tens of thousands of pesos and
even “kidnapped” the Kapitans and bring
them as far as Manila or Baguio City to wine, dine, and give them whore to
spend their time while waiting for the
D-Day (read: erection, er, election).
“Their mobile phones are even confiscated to avoid them being pirated
by another kapitan who aspires for the Liga top’s position and could lure them
with a higher amount to vote for him,” another
source in another town told me before.
On my experiences covering this
election, usually the candidates who were backed up by the mayor usually wins
the Liga polls.
“Si mayor kasi ang kalaban mo diyan.
Ano ang mapapala mo madami siyang pera saka pagiinitan ka sa projects pag
sinuway mo ang gusto niya,” another kapitan told me.
Hard Headed but Shrewd Kapitan
Only one gung ho village chief in a
city did not believe in this axiom. He challenged the bet of the mayor.
“Iyong mga kasama kong mga kapitan pera lang ang katapat niyan,” he bragged to me the vulnerability of the village chiefs when I
asked him he could not collide with the mayor.
He shelled out P50,000 per kapitan but
asked them to sign a blank bond paper where he told them that the paper was an
assurance that they each received the sum.
That paper was filled up later by words
that turned out to be a, HesusMariaHusef, Contract of Loans.
"The salamabit was a shrewd politico!" I cried then when a fellow columnist told me what happened.
"The salamabit was a shrewd politico!" I cried then when a fellow columnist told me what happened.
After he lost the poll, he chided his callus faced fellow Kapitans who did not only take his monies but voted
to the candidate of the mayor.
“He even sued us for collection of sum of money. Loan pala iyong
binigay niya hindi vote buying,” another
dimwitted kapitan, just like many of his contemporary that proliferate in the
country, lamented to me.
Some of his fellow Kapitans did return
the P50,000 others still face a court case of an unpaid loan.
Ganoon ka kapal ang mga mukha ng mga
kapitan, pera-pera lang sana pero they deceived the vote buying bet for the
League of Barangays’ poll.
That’s estafa or swindling even the
transaction was illegal.
(You
can read my selected columns at mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and
articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at
totomortz@yahoo.com)
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