P5-M to Win an S.K Presidency Thru Vote Buying

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

When an uncle told me his nephew will be running for the chairmanship of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) (Youth Council) on the October 30, 2023 election, my retort: How much he’s going to spend in vote buying to see he wins the electoral derby?

Quite stunned about this corruption that confronts the teen, he answered that he did not expect that even the poll for the youth - composed of the candidates for the presidency and the seven members of the council - needs to shell-out sum to win the polls.

Photo credit: Modesk.org

Age requirement for a bet in the SK is not least than 18 years old and not more than 24 years old.

If the other party’s candidate for the presidency vote buy, there is a big tendency his nephew losses the election in a post that gives a P17, 000 honorarium a month, I told him.

I am talking from experience because in the previous election, a father of a candidate for the SK chairmanship had been telling some friends how he gave P200 each to many of the teenager- voters for the post.

“Pang load niyo (money for the mobile phone load),” he said while clasping the hand of the wide eyed grateful teenage voter with the envelop that contains the sum and the flyer of the candidate.

This vote buying activity – just like what the bets for the mayorship and the village chief - is a microcosm of what many parents of these children have been doing to see that their sons and daughters are catapulted to the prestigious helm of the SK to serve the youth in the village lawmaking body with up to two years’ term (before it returned to the three-year term after December 31, 2025 as ordered by the Supreme Court).

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For the uninitiated, a winning SK President can become an ex-officio councilor of a town or a non-component city’s lawmaking body (we Pinoys called the sanggunian) as he leads those presidents of the SK in the villages. If his family have enough dough, wherewithal, datung, what-have-you, he can become an ex-officio Board Member of the provincial board.

The position as provincial lawmaker commands the same respect, emoluments, and pork barrel distribution what the regular board members' deserve.

Photo credit: Wix

The parents and politicians zealously bankroll and see their young kin wins so he or she can either becomes a councilor or a board member and “flaunt” the “Honorable” title appended before his or her name to all and sundry.

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Here’s a narration of a grandpa who was a mayor when he used the family’s wherewithal to fund the candidacy of his grandson to the presidency of the Liga in the provincial board.

 After winning the burgeoning town’s SK poll overall federation presidency, the politician – an event that ensued almost two decades ago- wanted the grandson to become an ex-officio member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Board).

“My family and I gave P50,000 to the mayor, P50,000 to the SK town president,” he told me their strategy to buy the loyalty and vote of the town ex-officio councilor.

“Why gave P50,000 to the mayor, it’s a waste of monies? It’s only the SK president in the Sangguniang Bayan that will vote for the provincial SK Federation President?” I posed perplexed.

The seasoned politico explained that even they bought the loyalty of the ex-officio councilor; the mayor could still influence him to vote for the rival candidate.

“Ang mayors ang nagbibigay ng projects sa each of the councilors. Puwede silang ma deprieve ng grasya pag sinuway nila si Mayor,” he insinuated about the S.O.P or cut from each of the contracts given to a loyal and submissive solon that runs to hundreds if not millions of pesos just like what members of Congress get from the pork barrel given by Malacanang Palace through the various departments.

Among the eight congressional districts' province, his kin lost on the votes of the four districts to the son of a mayor.

“Why?”

He answered that the Congressmen, the Governor, two billionaire businessmen interfere to influence the voters to elect the mayor’s son.

But unlike the village chief in a city who sued his fellow Kapitans that took his P50,000 bribe but instead vote for the candidate of a mayor for the presidency of the League of the Barangays presidency (a post that is equivalent to a regular councilor in the city council), the businessman-mayor told the chief executives and the parents that they have to retain the monies he gave.

“It’s yours. Our family maintains the principle that what we gave we don’t take it back”.

He said a day before the election they have “kidnapped” (a bastardized word for “billeted”) at their rest house the SK Presidents of the towns and cities’ where they dined and wined ‘em in a bacchanalian feast until the day of the election.

“One of our unforgettable experiences in that race was a candidate who was asked by his shrewd father to go in another province so he (the sly Dad) can bid the highest price from me and the Mayor (whose son was running for the coveted post)”.

I asked him why he was too focused on the enterprising father.

“The match was neck-and- neck. The opponent’s family got four districts while we got four, too, we don’t have to lower our guards”.

He said the rival’s father offered P100, 000 to the father of the SK prexy in that town but he would not acquiesce.

“I told the father my last offer was P200,000 that he immediately took”.

As a result of that chutzpah of my seasoned Hizzoner’s friend, his grandson won narrowly the election with a lead of three votes.

A very expensive election where his family spent roughly P5 million to a position that gave only a salary of P70,000 monthly (presently it’s more than P100, 000).

The politico credited the power of money in winning the tight cliff hanging race.

“Without it, we lost the election!”

Who said that money is not everything?

Look how an average thinking Kap bet in a city trounced out an intelligent former cabinet Secretary of the previous Philippines President: The Sec lost tremendously because he did not vote-buy instead offered his genius as a magic wand to solve the problems of the bellyaching masa. The hoi-polloi, err, the masa did not like it, they gravitated to the intellectually inferior candidate – probably a graduate of the Mababang Paaralan ng San Andres Bukid (broadcaster Sammy Llusala translated it to radioman Harold Barcelona: Low School of Saint Andrew’s Field instead of San Andres Elementary School) who could afford to give each of them in the eve of the poll a crisp P500 stamped with a smiling Ninoy and Cory Aquino from his income on his thriving business.