Mayor Gives Up After Spending P100-M for Vote Buying

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza, MPA

A town mayor told me he will leave politics for good after his three-term (straight nine years) is completed.

“Magastos! Sariling pera ko na ang ginagastos ko sa mga taga dito. Noong huling eleksyon (May 2025) gumastos ako ng halos P100 million sa pakurong (vote buying), mga binibigay ko sa mga lider ko, at pakain sa mga tao ilang buwan bago mag eleksyon,” he told me when I dropped by at his office recently.

When I asked him how many voters he has in his thriving town, he said 60,000 registered voters.

“Kung bibilhin ninyo ang 40, 000 na botante ng isang libo (peso) kada isa, P40 million na kaagad iyan,” I quipped.

He said vote buying in his town reached up to P2,000 per voter as his opponent had wherewithal to throw to the vulnerable vote- for- sale electorates where that perennial practice has been endemic to all towns and cities in Pangasinan and in the country.

“Mabuti nang wala na ako sa pulitika. Iyong bahay ko na malaki nakaloan iyan sa banko ng tens of millions of pesos, at least iyan na lang ang pagkakagastusan ko,” the successful businessman –politician cited.

He said that election nowadays is for people who have more money to spend for the voters because the salary of a mayor, vice mayor, and a councilor could not assure them that it could catapult them into an elective office.

“Iyong vice mayor dito gumastos ng P30 million para lang manalo,” the Hizzoner said.

Including the Representation and Transportation Allowance (RATA), the average monthly salaries of a mayor, vice mayor, and a councilor of a first class town are P170, 000, P150,000, and 120, 000, respectively.

The Chief Executive of the local government said running for office and winning it is vain for those people who joined it.

“Prestige lang naman iyan,” La Alkalde sneered.

I told him about a reelective Councilor for his third term for the May 2028 election that decided to forego his plan to continue in his office.

“Magastos! Pati sueldo ko binibigay ko na sa mga tao na araw-araw humihingi ng tulong,” the Solon or Dad (we Editor use in our headline describing a provincial, city, or municipal lawmaker) told me when I bumped into him at the gallery of the provincial board when his fellow lawmakers and the vice mayor where there for the review of their new ordinance by the provincial Dads.

He mulls to return to his previous job in the government where his emolument every month is intact because of the absence of those indigents badgering him day and night for alms, medication, foods, funeral expenses, and whatchamacallit.