Vote Buying Depends on Rival’s Capacity to Give

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The amount that a rich candidate will give to voters as election approaches depend on the price his rival shelled out to each of the electorates, according to a barangay (village) chairman tasked by a mayoralty bet in this town to do his bidding.

“Depende iyan sa kalaban. Pag nagbigay siya ng P1000 sa botante, iyong boss ko magbibigay siya ng P1,500,” the village chief in Pangasinan, who asked for anonymity, told this writer.

This conversation ensued when he was asked if vote buying can breach the P2,500 mark for each electorate comes election time.

“Puwede pag nagbigay ang kalaban ng P2000. Pero I doubt kung kaya ng rival kasi limitado ang pera niya”.

VOTE FOR SALE: A leader (R) of a political candidate in the Philippines shell-out sums to buy the vote of an electorate.

 When asked how much his patron spent on the truckloads of voters who were ferried in a warehouse to receive P500 each two weeks before the May 13, 2019 election, this what he retorted:

“My estimate was P1.5 million. P500 multiplied by 3,000 of these voters  who were brought there to attend some pep talks with the mayoralty bet and some councilors”.

Those voters, selected by the village chiefs, came from more than three dozen villages of the town.

“Each of us were designated by the mayorship candidate to bring 100 voters for the distribution of dole outs just for today”.

He said many of these electorates have received several kilos of rice and bags of groceries not only from his patron but from the other mayoral candidate.

“Naglalagare din ang iba diyan para maka kubra sa kabila”.

He said he could not stop those two-faced voters because he is afraid about the backlash of their anger in the next village election where he will be running for reelection.

“Pinababayaan ko na sila,” the ingratiating chief cited.

He also said the other party cannot just guard his patron and his candidates not to buy votes because the voters will get angry.

“It happened on my part in the village election. When my rival guarded all the corners of the streets with video cameras up to daybreak of the election, the voters smarted to them that I won in a landslide because the voters felt deprived of the pakurong”.

Pakurong is Pangasinan term for dole outs in cash or in kind that candidates give to voters surreptitiously in the eve of election day.

He said bigger amount will “flood” the villages and the poblacion during the pakurong for the May polls.

READ MY OTHER ARTICLE:

How Mayor, Guv, Solon Steal to Fund Their Election