By Mortz C. Ortigoza
Barangay Nabayaran is one of the huge
villages in Northern Luzon. The Punong Barangay Philip Dipaawat during his term in 2010 to 2013 received a
monthly pay of P24,000 while his seven council members and the ex-officio
Sangguniang Kabataan Chairman got P8,000.00 each.
“Pinaka malaki na iyan na pasueldo sa
barangay officials kahit thankless jobs ang designacion namin”.
He stressed that even during the wee hours
indigents still knocked at his door to ask for financial assistance.
“Even media men dropped by at my office. They were happy because every time they leave my secretary sees to it
that they received P300 bills where he put the sum in the envelope”.
 |
| Campaign kitty of a candidate in a Philippines' election. |
He asked that reporters could drop by
at the makeshift restaurant near the barangay hall and nourished themselves with a free meal before they go to his office.
“Pagkain na, may sobre pa, may inum pa!”
he quipped.
During that time, the average customary
dole out of a congressman, city mayor, and other first class town mayor to a respected but susceptible media man was P2000, P1000, and P500, respectively, every time he or she visited
the offices of these public servants.
The P300 was quite hefty since it came
from a barangay chairman whose illegal number game jueteng's payola was minuscule
compared to those received by the governor, board members, mayor, vice mayor,
police provincial, city, and municipal chiefs that ran to hundreds of thousands
if not countless of millions of pesos a month.
Kapitan (old title of a village chief)
said he received P30, 000 only monthly from the maintainer's of the illegal number game during his
stint.
A media man jocularly told him that
his generosity during his administration in doling out sums to people can be
likened to a 5th class town mayor in Luzon.
The election in 2010-2013, he said,
was the toughest in the last three village polls he participated.
Former Barangay Chairman Roberto Dimagiba made a comeback and was
determined to reclaim his position through the help of the sitting mayor.
ME: How many of you aspired in that
election?
DIPAAWAT: Three
ME: How much was you and your
opponents’ budgets?
He said his budget was P1 million
while former Kapitan Dimagiba and Ricardo Menardo have P500, 000 each.
Dipaawat said that he just emulated his
strategies in 2007-2010 poll to buy votes when he and Restituto Sagupa
Dimagiba, the son of Dimagiba, tangled.
In that 2007 exercise Dipaawat resorted to
give P200 to his 120 leaders who identified who were his sympathizers,
supporters, and those voters and leaders who were with the rivals.
Some days before the casting of votes,
Dipaawat narrated, his leaders were roving the village’s sitios and households
where they gave grocery bag composed of a kilo of rice, two noodles, a can of
sardine, and pamphlets where his ticket and those of the ticket of the Samahang
Kabataan's candidates he endorsed were printed.
But he had a nerve wracking experience
before he and his leaders could start buying votes at P250 per voter.
He did not reach the third wave where
his almost P1 million campaign kitty 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 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.
“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 challenger 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,” Dipaawat cited.
“Kap, pagasulinahan natin ito mamaya.
Problema pa natin iyan baka maubusan tayo ng gasolina pag umikot
tayo,” his driver, who was in cahoots with Dimagiba, told him.
He said another two of his unwitting aides
accompanied the 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 for the moment 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.
Dipaawat has an advice to incumbent
candidates and those challengers who have all the resources to defeat their
opponents:
“Don’t belittle your weak opponent, he
could make surprises”.
He lost in that election he blamed on
Murphy’s Law.
Murphy Law is an adage or epigram that
states "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong".
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