Less Moneyed Mayorship Bet uses Bluff to Win Election

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I quipped to Political Operator-1 of an incumbent rich town’s mayor that in the 2019 election Operator-2 told me he discouraged his patron’s mayorship candidate to proceed in the vote buying of the electorates at P800 each in the eve of the May 13, 2019 election.

“Sinabihan ko na si Mayor na huwag na ilabas ang P800 kasi ang kalaban namimili ng P2,000 per voter,” I quoted what Operator-2 disclosed to me to Operator -1-  a retired cop.

“Talaga bang nagpabaha si Mayor ninyo ng pera sa bayan ninyo?” I posed.

He said the losing mayor spent P5,000 each voter in the one month’s span before the voters cast their ballots in the precinct.

MASSIVE VOTE BUYING. The customary vote buying in the Philippines that runs now to thousands of pesos per gullible and vulnerable voter where the less intelligent but moneyed candidate wins against the financially deprived but brainy rival.

“Tinadtad (made installments) nila ang P5,000. Meron pa diyan ibinigay P2,000 kada botante. Mas maraming pera si ex- mayor kaysa kay mayor noong election,” he stressed to me in Tagalog.

When I bumped into him middle of this year, the losing mayor told me that they vote buy earlier because he and his father were afraid that his rival who had connection with the police provincial director could box in the corner his bagmen - who shell-out monies to voters as ingratiation for him and his family to win – in the eve of the election. 

 In Pangasinan province they called it “Pakurong” read in countless English words (Damn, just learned the Pangalatok, er, Pangasinan language is superior in the brevity game to English) as discreet shelling out of sums to the houses of voters or in a specific venue.

“Magkano ang bilihan ng boto sa bayan ninyo at kayo ay natalo?”.

“Dalawang libo isang linggo bago mag eleksyon,” he answered

“Bakit isang linggo bago mag eleksiyon. Dapat sa eve ng eleksyon kayo namumudmod ng pera?” I added.

His fear was reminiscent of a former Pangasinan PD  - a Colonel – who emphatically ordered his men to disable a city mayor and his bagmen not to buy votes that allow the other rival candidate to vote buy and win the election.

The aggressiveness of the PD, my source said on conditioned of anonymity, was a quid pro quo to the other rival that in case the patron candidate wins the cop get his share of the monthly jueteng (illegal number game) ingreso from the gambling lord to the city.

Bluffed by Menacing Looking Motorcycle Men

“Sabi ni ex-Mayor natakot daw sila kasama ang mga supporters nila dahil may mga umiikot sa mga bara-barangay na naka motor (motorcycles) naka black jacket. Sabi ni ex-Mayor mga goons daw ni Mayor iyon,” I told Operator -1.

The ex –cop laughed. He said they were not goons and hit men as the rival pictured them in the media.  It was a successful bluff that psyched out their wits.

“Mga motorcycle group iyon ni rentahan namin para bumu-o ng takot sa isip ng mga kalaban”.

Godzak and Godzilla! So the P2,000 per voter – where the ex - cop and company ferried those boxes of P1,000 bills in cigarette boxes from Lingayen in  the day before the election - and the imagined fear created by the incumbent mayor and his supporters have been a bluff, chutzpah, and sly that saw the long reign streaked of the ex-mayor and his father - another ex-mayor - halted in a competitive 2019 poll?

I remembered a city where each of the two mayorship candidate spent P333,659,200 average as I computed (Geez, to a post that gives P150, 000 monthly for three years) to buy the favor of the mostly greedy vote for sale voters probably in Region-1.

In the eve of the May 2019 election, sports utility vehicles (SUVs) roamed noisily the highways and streets of the city and the villages crowing their huge posters marked N.B.I pasted on the side of their car.

Was it an abbreviation of the National Bureau of Investigation or Na Bluff Ikaw?

I learned later it was the creation of the astute mayorship bet and his advisers composed of incumbent and retired generals to deter his rival – a multi-millionaire – in sowing the dough to the voters who have been queuing the gate of a university where the distribution of the P2,500 for each of the excited voters would ensue.

The bag men of the sly mayorship bet - who distributed P2,000 for each of the crowd in the wee hour escaped hair-thin from the jaw clamping looming defeat – told them to wait as they would pick up the sacks of monies – donated allegedly by Filipino Chinese traders who hated the then incumbent hizzoner - and would add another P1,000 to make the purchase of their “sacred” Right of Suffrage at P3,000.

Result: The incumbent mayor basking on the victory - backed up by a scientific poll that she would win in a closed contest -  lost by a nip and tuck votes.

It happened because voters would vote for the one who shelled out the highest amount – P3,000 versus P2,500.

  A seasoned mayor in the Third Congressional District told me years ago: Iyong mga tubo (pipe) ng gripo (faucet), kahoy (lumber) yero (galvanized iron sheets)  na pinamimigay  at mga medical mission na milyon year or years before the election, wala iyan. Pag nagbigay ang kalaban ng P700 kada botante sa gabi bago mag eleksiyon at ang rival P500 lang, talo ang P500 kahit na nag bigay siya noong mga gamit na sinabi ko at nag medical mission pa siya.

READ MY OTHER BLOG/COLUMN:

Why Politicians Spend a Fortune to a Post that Pays a Pittance?