Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Time to Pay the Loans the Bets Use for Vote Buying

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Sa Baguio City mga kandidato flyers lang inaabot walang kasamang pera. Sa Dagupan City dekada na ang nakalipas ma pa mayorship at barangay eleksiyon libo libong pesos ang abutan ng kandidato sa botante pero inutil ang lintik na Commission on Election kahit isa walang nakakasuhan at nadi-disqualify sa vote buying.



Now that the acrimonious village elections in the Philippines have been concluded despite the alleged opening of a ballot box by those public school teachers commissioned by the Commission on Election to protect the ballots in Dagupan City and the alleged order of a Kapitana to murder her rival at a barangay in Pangasinan notoriously known to have illegal quarry, it's time for the winning and lossing candidates to pay their loans - susmariosep, they run at millions of pesos for a post that pays a pittance.
"My opponent borrowed P2 million so he could buy a vote at P500 per voter," a winner for the post of a Punong Barangay quipped to me in a huddle.
He crowed that he was ready to eclipse the second monetarial wave of that rival if he resorted by giving another P500 to the same electorate who was a recipient of his generosity earlier.
"I have a budget of P1,200 per voter," he told me with a conditioned of anonymity that he had a campaign chest of P3 million to win the poll.
I don't know what happened to the venture of the husband of a school Principal in Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan whom a fellow media man told me his wife loaned in a bank P1 million so they could buy votes to win a thankless post.
A post of a village chief pays P20,000 to P25,000 a month with most of these remuneration go to the indigents that badgerred almost daily the Kapitan for their medical and other needs.

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