Watch for Murphy’s Law – Former Kap warns brgy bets

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

“Don’t belittle your weak opponent, he could make surprises,” advice by a former Punong Barangay (Village Chief) to those who are running for the 2018 Barangay Election.

The chief lost in an election he blamed on Murphy’s Law.

Murphy Law is an adage or epigram that states "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong".

The chairman, who asked anonymity, said he was a shoo-in for his reelection bid to win based on his surveys at the sitios.

But he still lost it because of the resources of the incumbent mayor that damaged his political stocks.

“The mayor was a shrewd politician as based on his personal experiences. In the past election he was behind in popularity when he challenged the incumbent mayor. He explained that because of machination and drama the challenging mayor created and immediately snapped and played by the media the sitting mayor lost his reelection.

“During the start of the (barangay) election, the mayor pledge to his supporters that all the villages that supported his pet-peeve vice mayor would lost in the poll,” the losing village chairman cited.

Due to the operational and intellectual supports of the mayor, all of those blacklisted punong barangay chairmen, including him lost. 
The chutzpah was a textbook model how to outwit one’s opponent who was leading the race and made him lost it.

Unlike in his previous ran for the village chairmanship, he and his supporters were unrestrained giving dole outs and buying votes to the about 8,000 voters.

“But in my reelection, the electoral field was different. While I have my Three Gs (Gold, Goons, Guns) my rival had all the full support of the more powerful and well-armed police through the help of the mayor”.

He could hardly complete efficiently the two waves of doling outs his goods and monies as the police and the rival’s supporters were watching him and his supporters closely.

He did not reach the third wave where P250 bills would be used to buy votes because of the incident that happened to him and his supporters the night before the casting of votes.

 He cited that almost all the one million pesos kitty was not consummated as the police had destroyed his will to fund the third wave.

The reason for his demoralization: The mayor coached the former chairman to bribe the driver of the incumbent Kapitan to drive out his pick-up car in the wee hour.

“Kap, pagasulinahan natin ito mamaya. Problema pa natin iyan baka maubusan tayo ng gasolina pag umikot tayo,” the driver told him.

He said another two of his unwitting aides accompanied the unfaithful corrupt driver.

After the clock hit midnight, the car was cruising to the gasoline station in the village but was immediately flagged down by policemen manning a newly installed check point.

The trio was ordered to disembark and frisk while their vehicle was searched and was found out to have rifles without license.

 At 2 o’clock in the following early morning he and his lawyer were at the police station arguing with the chief of police that the guns were “planted” where the police could not even produce the guns.

But it was not the concern of the police and probably the mayor and his rival. What was in their mind was the hype the apprehension of his men and seizing of their set up rifles could bring as a huge news in that day’s prime time television and radio.

What aggravated the destruction of his integrity and the plunged of his popularity before the voters who go to the precincts to exercise their rights of suffrage on that day was the series of pronouncements of the Election Officer of the Commission on Election to the media that he was already damaged and would be subjected to criminal charges and jail time even if he wins the election.

“Masakit. Ang Election Officer interviewed at the behest of the mayor. He said mabigat itong kaso ni Kapitan kahit na manalo siya, paulit ulit pang sinabi iyon, hindi rin siya makakatapos dahil pa file din siya ng kaso,” he recalled.

He lost 500 votes among the 8,000 voters of the village to the come backing kapitan, thanks to the astute interference of the mayor whose administration was also known to reek with corruption issues because of the willing conspiracy not only with the pro mayor village chiefs but even with the members of the local government’s legislative body.