Money Pours this Early to the Kapitans

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Barangay Kapitans (village chiefs) of a province in Northern Luzon are ecstatic these days because manna ( id est monies) from heaven started to shower them more than eight months before the May 9, 2022 election.

“Ang bigayan doon sa kabila limang libo kada Kapitan (The money given in the other group was P5,000 per Kapitan),” a village chief – used to be called Tenyente del Barrio in the 1960s – told fellow barangay chairmen.

“Wala iyan, doon sa isang bayan 52 out of 80 Kapitans nakatangap ng tig do-dose’ mil (That’s a pittance. In the other town out each of the 52 of the 80 village chiefs received twelve thousand pesos),” another Kap butted in.

My source on conditioned of anonymity said the congressional, governorship, and vice governorship bets chipped in P5,000, P,5,000, and P2,000 respectively for each of the barangay chairmen.

MANNA. As the May 9, 2022 election comes near in the Philippines, village chiefs become recipients of the monies from ingratiating politicos who want the chiefs' intercession to win votes for them
among their constituents.

Geez, these money hungry village chiefs will be belting the Pinoys’ nursery song’s “I have to hands the left and the right….”as they exploit the extra ordinary generosity of politicos who ingratiate to them to get the votes of their constituents.

***

This phenomenon was just like the mayor in a central Pangasinan town who  told me about his barangay captains who were recipients of the generosity of a high government official.

He said in their first, second, and third visits each of them were given P1000, P2000, and P3000, respectively.

“Pinatawag ako ng kalaban, nagtatanong bakit lagi namamasyal iyong mga Kapitan ko sa rival nila, ayon sinabihan ako na e meeting sila para mabigyan ng tag di-dies mil (P10,000) kada isa”.

The amiable seasoned mayor, who was once an alleged bag man of jueteng (illegal number's game), told me he hosted a drinking spree for the Kaps and when he distributed the envelop to each of them all their eyes popped out when they start counting the P1,000 bills inside: Damn, they could not believe the rival of the public figure could be more generous.

“Tuwang tuwa sila hindi nila akalain na ang pagpunta-punta nila sa kabila ay napalitan ng mas malaking halaga. Marakep ya (This is good)," he said in Pangasinan.

“Mag Lalagaring Hapon iyang mga Kapitan ninyo Mayor,” I quipped by comparing them to those voters and media men for sale to the highest bidder.

The Mayor even told me that it is the reality of Philippines’ Politics that a person loyalty’s depend on the gold.

***

Let’s go back to those politicians I mentioned who threw away five thousand and twelve thousand pesos like candies to grateful Kapitanes.

With P12, 000 to each Kap does it mean victory for the givers are already certain?

Nope!

These village heads are only minuscule in numbers compared to the hundreds of thousands of voters – the real McCoys - who will vote for the candidates that could give them more dough.

Most Filipino voters nowadays are not only stupid, gullible, but vulnerable to succumb to the highest bidder.

The one with the hundreds of millions of pesos for the congressional derby and the billion of pesos for the governorship's tussle win the election. They are the sine qua non and the  raison d'être of the campaign on every election in this province. 

This unless these candidates have damaging issues against the incumbent or life shaking issues - like then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte had against President Noynoy Aquino and his fair haired boy Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas.

Aquino and Roxas' incompetence in locking horns on the deteriorating narc problems in the country saw them lost big time the 2019 election.

A candidate bereft of this amount and earth moving issues is just wasting his time, efforts, and money. His attempt to that government office that pays P182, 191 and P268, 121 a month for the governorship and congressional posts, respectively, is a practice in futility.

***

A shrewd governorship candidate years ago just watch on the sideline his billionaire opponent spent hundreds of millions of pesos doing charitable works like medical missions and payrolled majority of the mayors and vice mayors in the province, media men, leaders, and others but found himself losing the polls a week before the D-Day where people went to the precincts and exercised their Rights of Suffrage.

Why? His wily opponent counter attacked – just like what Joseph Stalin had done when routed Adolf Hitler - with his huge campaign chests and won the tussle.

It was a chess match where cerebral not only matters but wherewithal - that gave the tactician's hundreds of thousands of led votes to his enemy who could not fathom what son of a gun befell him.

What I mentioned in the last part of the above paragraph was astuteness at its highest.

READ MY OTHER BLOG/COLUMN:

                            The Lethal, Costly Weapons of a Cobra

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

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I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials's idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.